+ =Ind= 103:323 S 11 ’20 10w
“‘Kathleen’ is forced from beginning to end. ‘Kathleen’ is a warning
to all writers who ignore the fact that there are difficulties even in
the construction of a trifle designed for an hour’s entertainment.”
− + =N Y Times= 25:170 Ap 11 ’20 260w
+ =Review= 2:404 Ap 17 ’20 160w
=MORLEY, CHRISTOPHER DARLINGTON.= Pipefuls. il *$2 Doubleday 817
20–20442
“Pipefuls” is apropos of the brevity of the sketches in this
collection compiled from the New York Evening Post, the
Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger and other journals. The author
characteristically declares: “These sketches gave me pain to
write; they will give the judicious patron pain to read; therefore
we are quits.... And yet perhaps the will-to-live is in them, for
are they not a naked exhibit of the antics a man will commit in
order to earn a living?” (Preface) In one of the sketches,
Confessions of a “colyumist,” in which he expatiates on the task
of conducting a newspaper column, he thus parodies Wordsworth:
“The meanest paragraph that blows will give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for sneers.”
The illustrations are from drawings by Walter Jack Duncan.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:146 Ja ’21
“Short crisp amusing papers with the mellowness and pungency which are
characteristic of this fluent author’s work.” Margaret Ashmun
+ =Bookm= 52:348 D ’20 30w
“Mr Morley is like a painter who converts the commonplace into a work
of art.”
+ =Bookm= 52:368 Ja ’21 30w
“In other words, if one wants to believe things honestly worth while,
despite unquestioned difficulties, if one wants to walk in the
reflected sunshine he sheds on the ‘sunny side of Grub street,’ if one
longs to see the ultimate value of unconsidered trifles, if, in fact,
one asks for a lifting grin at the bad crossings, or only some fun,
humanwise, by the way, read Christopher Morley.” I. W. L.
+ =Boston Transcript= p13 D 8 ’20 1000w
“Mr Morley, one is glad to see, seems to be shaking off the
sugar-crystals which were threatening to encase his style; and in this
volume one rejoices in passages of real charm, the product of an alert
and sensitive imagination.”
+ =Freeman= 2:260 N 24 ’20 180w
=MORLEY, CHRISTOPHER DARLINGTON.= Travels in Philadelphia. il *$1.50
(2c) McKay 917.48
20–5213
In his introduction to this collection of sketches, originally printed
in the Evening Public Ledger, A. Edward Newton says: “Where else shall
we find simplicity, the gayety, the kindly humor, and the charm of
this gentle essayist? Who, other than Morley, could make a walk out
Market street of interest and a source of fun?... Who, but he, could
find in the commonplace, sordid, and depressing streets of our city,
subjects for a sheaf of dainty little essays, as delightful as they
are unique?” Some of the titles are: Little Italy; Meeting the gods
for a dime; Trailing Mrs Trollope; The Ronaldson cemetery; Chestnut
street from a fire escape; The recluse of Franklin square; Up the
Wissahickon; The Whitman centennial; Anne Gilchrist’s house; Penn
treaty park; At the mint; Madonnas of the curb; On the sightseeing
bus; Putting the city to bed. The illustrations are from drawings by
Frank H. Taylor.
* * * * *
“These articles combine a happy, not too studied description with
pleasant humor into a congenial guide book to Philadelphia.”
+ =Booklist= 16:309 Je ’20
“The book is here for everybody to read and take pleasure in whether
or not they have ever seen Philadelphia. Perhaps some day Mr Morley
will come hither and give us a like book about Boston.” E. F. E.
+ =Boston Transcript= p9 My 29 ’20 650w
+ =Cleveland= p76 Ag ’20 110w
“To an old Philadelphian the insight of Mr Christopher Morley is
really wondrous.” M. F. Egan
+ =N Y Times= 25:284 My 30 ’20 550w
=MORLEY, LINDA H., and KIGHT, ADELAIDE C.= 2400 business books and guide
to business literature. *$5 Wilson, H. W. 016
This is a revision of the work called “1600 business books,” compiled
by Sarah B. Ball and published in 1916. It has been prepared by Linda
H. Morley and Adelaide C. Kight of the Business branch of the Newark
public library, under the direction of John Cotton Dana. “The
sub-title ‘Guide to business literature’ is added to make it plain
that the book is far more than a list of 2400 volumes. It is an index
to the contents of those volumes; that is, it lists, in alphabetic
order, under 2000 different headings, the subjects which are treated
in these 2400 books. These headings are in addition to those entries
which give the names of the writers of the 2400 books and in addition
to the entries which give their titles.” (Introd.) The entries are
arranged in one alphabet, with a publishers’ directory at the close.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:136 Ja ’21
=MORRIS, EDWIN BATEMAN.= Cresting wave. *$1.75 Penn
20–4440
“An American story of a young, successful, but unscrupulous,
financier, giving a picture of society financial markets, and the
conflict of business methods and the passion of love.”—The Times
[London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 16:349 Jl ’20
“Edwin Bateman Morris’s preceding novels have prepared us for
moderately good tales from his pen, and ‘The cresting wave’ is no
disappointment.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p10 My 1 ’20 160w
“The author here has taken a safe course in his novel of more than
four hundred pages, and if he presents us with nothing especially new,
at least he does no violence to no tradition and does not attempt to
paint his hero in impossible colors.”
+ − =N Y Times= 25:330 Je 20 ’20 400w
“‘The cresting wave’ is built upon one of the very oldest of ideas or
morals: namely, that it is better to be decent than successful, better
to serve than to grasp. Perhaps my gratitude to young William Spade
for neither trying to write a novel nor spouting free verse nor
hanging about cafes and studios in search of ‘life’ prejudices me
unduly in his favor.” H. W. Boynton
+ =Review= 2:393 Ap 17 ’20 250w
+ − =Springf’d Republican= p11a My 16 ’20 240w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p285 My 6 ’20 50w
=MORRIS, HARRISON SMITH.= Hannah Bye. *$1.75 Penn
20–7646
“The Quaker life and character is sketched in this simple and sweet
story of Hannah Bye. The scene is in a Quaker community and the
characters are varied. Here is Deborah Bye, cold, harsh,
uncompromising, whose conscience forms her whole character and whose
personality rather than her religion, forms her conscience. Her
daughter, Hannah, the heroine of the story, is a far sweeter character
and one which appeals strongly to the reader. Ruth Blake, her nearest
friend, makes the acquaintance of a city visitor to the country, of
whom Hannah warns her without success. The fall comes and Hannah, in
her effort to keep and save Ruth, draws upon herself her mother’s
anger. The peaceful home is shattered but Hannah in the end restores
its peace.”—Boston Transcript
* * * * *
“The story is restful, with here and there a dash of humor, but one
which will appeal to all in its quiet delineation of character, which
appears to be drawn from real life.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 O 13 ’20 150w
“Mr Morris’s descriptions of the country are sympathetic and reveal an
artist’s eye; he has handled the Quaker jargon with some success, but
not exhaustively or to the complete satisfaction of the insider. Any
Quaker will, certainly, take exception to the hard, domineering
character attributed to Hannah’s mother, Deborah Bye. The Quaker
meeting for worship is also incongruous, and the dance and its sequel
are inappropriately melodramatic.” W. W. Comfort
+ − =Nation= 111:621 D 1 ’20 500w
“The picture of a little rural community centered about the quaint
meeting-house of the society of Friends is delightful.’”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Je 27 ’20 150w
=MORRISON, ALFRED JAMES.= East by west; essays in transportation. *$1.50
(3½c) Four seas co. 382
20–26869
“A commentary on the political framework within which the East India
trade has been carried on from early times, starting with Babylon and
ending very near Babylon.” (Subtitle) The book begins with the
twentieth century before Christ describing the avenues of trade to and
from Babylon, “formed by position for a seat of empire and commerce,”
and falls into two parts, part one ending with Venice as the great
commercial center in the fifteenth century. Part two begins with the
trade ascendancy of Portugal, at the time of the discovery of America,
and ends with the Bagdad railway and “The great transportation war.”
An edition of the book was published by Sherman, French in 1917.
* * * * *
“The book was probably not designed and is certainly not adapted to
fit the needs of a serious student, but may attract the casual reader
by its rapid movement and informal style.”
+ =Am Hist R= 26:138 O ’20 150w
+ =Booklist= 16:331 Jl ’20
+ =Cath World= 111:554 Jl ’20 140w
=Nation= 110:773 Je 5 ’20 220w
“Some of the remarks seem but remotely connected with the subject of
transportation.”
+ − =Review= 3:626 D 22 ’20 380w
“The underlying causes which caused the movements of civilization are
dealt with in a lively style, which is not often found in books of
this kind.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 Ap 30 ’20 120w
=MORSE, EDWIN WILSON.= Life and letters of Hamilton Wright Mabie. il *$3
(3½c) Dodd
20–20980
A biography of a distinguished author, editor and lecturer, quoting
liberally from his letters and from the letters written to him by
others. There are chapters on: Ancestry, boyhood and youth; At
Williams college in the ‘sixties; Recollections of Dr Mark Hopkins and
Emerson; In the uncongenial law; On the staff of the Christian Union;
Associate editor of the Christian Union; A memorable decade;
Non-professional activities; Literary honors; The middle period;
Ambassador of peace to Japan; The world war; The last year; Editor,
author and lecturer; Character and personality. There is an index of
names and places.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:153 Ja ’21
“Mr Morse’s ‘The life and letters of Hamilton W. Mabie’ is conceived
and carried through in the spirit of its subject. It is clear,
sympathetic, and convincing.” H: Van Dyke
+ =Bookm= 52:355 Ja ’21 1150w
“Mr Morse has performed his task excellently, with sufficient fulness
and good judgment in selection of his material. The book is also well
illustrated.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p9 N 27 ’20 160w
“The reviewer does not mean to suggest that Mr Morse’s volume is dull,
but is far from exciting. The subject of it led an uneventful life, in
the sense that there were few dramatic happenings in his life.”
+ − =N Y Times= p20 Ja 16 ’21 1950w
=R of Rs= 63:110 Ja ’21 90w
“Shows careful and sympathetic study of an influential American.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p5a Ja 23 ’21 600w
=MOSHER, MRS ANGE (MCKAY).= Spell of Brittany. il *$3 Duffield 914.4
20–21069
This volume by an American woman who had lived long in Brittany is
devoted largely to its history, traditions and folklore. There are
chapters on Madame de Sévigné; Folk-lore and Jeanne de Pontorson; Mont
St Michel and its legends; St Malo and Chateaubriand; A folk song of
St Malo; Dinard, Dinan and excursions; Félix de Lamennais; The legend
and pardon of St Yves; Breton wedding; Brest and the adjacent islands;
Audierne, and the legend of Ys; Saints and fairies; Nantes and Anne of
Brittany, etc. Among the illustrations are reproductions of paintings.
There is an index. The introduction by Anatole LeBraz is in the nature
of a memorial to the author, who died in 1918.
* * * * *
“Good print and make-up.”
+ =Booklist= 17:151 Ja ’21
Reviewed by Margaret Ashmun
+ =Bookm= 52:345 D ’20 80w
“Exceedingly bright and fascinating are these chapters out of the life
of a lovely woman who made the study of these people her avocation, if
not her actual vocation.” E. J. C.
+ =Boston Transcript= p5 D 4 ’20 580w
+ =N Y Times= p22 D 12 ’20 270w
=R of Rs= 62:672 D ’20 50w
=MOTON, ROBERT RUSSA.= Finding a way out; an autobiography. *$2.50 (4½c)
Doubleday
20–10075
In writing his story it was the hope of the author “that the telling
of it would serve a useful purpose, especially at this time, in
helping to a clearer understanding of the hopes and aspirations of my
own people and the difficulties which they have overcome in making the
progress of the last fifty years which has been so frequently
described as ‘the most remarkable of any race in so short a time.’”
(Preface) Contents: Out of Africa; On a Virginia plantation; Through
reconstruction; Doing and learning; A touch of real life; Ending
student days; Black, white, and red; With north and south; From
Hampton to Tuskegee; At Tuskegee; War activities; Forward movements in
the south; Index. The author succeeded Booker T. Washington as head of
Tuskegee institute.
* * * * *
“This autobiography not only impresses one with the worth and dignity
of its writer but charms and amuses the reader with the sense of humor
and the sweetness which the author has carried with him.”
+ =Booklist= 16:344 Jl ’20
Reviewed by M. E. Bailey
+ =Bookm= 52:304 Ja ’21 110w
“If not so romantic as the autobiography of his predecessor, Dr Booker
T. Washington nevertheless this story of the life of the present head
of Tuskegee, is a document of vital interest. The chapters on From
Hampton to Tuskegee and At Tuskegee are among the most important of Dr
Moton’s autobiography.” W. S. B.
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 Je 16 ’20 730w
Reviewed by M. W. Ovington
=Freeman= 1:500 Ag 4 ’20 800w
+ =Nation= 111:736 D 22 ’20 50w
“We wish that this volume might find its way into every public library
in the United States and into every school and church library in the
South.”
+ =Outlook= 125:467 Jl 7 ’20 280w
“His book deserves to be read on his own account, and also for the
side lights that it throws upon negro conditions and problems.”
+ =R of Rs= 62:111 Jl ’20 100w
“It is easy to read and is highly informing and inspiring regarding
the career of one of America’s outstanding figures in contemporary
affairs. It is bound to be read, especially by those who enjoy an
unusual autobiography.” F. P. Chisholm
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a S 26 ’20 500w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p712 N 4 ’20 520w
=MOTTELAY, PAUL FLEURY=, comp. Life and work of Sir Hiram Maxim; knight,
chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, etc. il *$2 (4c) Lane
20–13086
Biographical facts are set forth in a foreword by the author. This is
followed by an introduction by Lord Moulton. The body of the book is
then devoted to the inventions of Sir Hiram Maxim, with chapters on:
Electric lighting; Maxim automatic gun; Powders; Explosives; Erosion
of guns; Fuzes; Gun for attacking Zeppelins; Lewis gun—Madsen gun;
Flight of a projectile; Aerial navigation; etc. There are seven
illustrations, appendixes and index.
* * * * *
=Ath= p604 My 7 ’20 700w
=Outlook= 125:715 Ag 25 ’20 60w
=Spec= 124:394 Mr 20 ’20 180w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p189 Mr 18 ’20 80w
=MOULTON, JOHN FLETCHER MOULTON, 1st baron.= Science and war. pa *80c
(7½c) Putnam 509
(Eng ed 19–15830)
This small volume contains the Rede lecture for 1919, at Cambridge
university. In beginning his enumeration of the debts the war owes to
science Lord Moulton, without apparent ironical intent, points out
that science made the war possible. He shows that the war represented
“the results of the totality of scientific progress” from the
beginning and then devotes himself to the more recent developments of
science and invention that determined the character and extent of the
war. In conclusion he warns that the next war may mean not only the
end of civilization but the self-destruction of mankind.
* * * * *
=Ath= p786 Ag 22 ’19 340w
Reviewed by B: C. Gruenberg
=Nation= 111:104 Jl 24 ’20 160w
+ =Spec= 123:284 Ag 30 ’19 90w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p402 Jl 24 ’19 180w
=MOULTON, RICHARD GREEN=, ed. Modern reader’s Bible for schools; the New
Testament. *$2.25 Macmillan 225
20–5983
“‘The modern reader’s Bible’ is not a new translation. It is the
ordinary Bible (revised version), without alteration as to matter or
wording, but printed in such a way as to bring out to the eye the full
literary form and structure. This literary form and structure refers
to such things as the difference between story, song, drama,
discourse, essay: the distinction between verse and prose, together
with the delicate variations of verse which make such a large part of
the effect of poetry.” (Introd.) In addition to the general
introduction each of the three parts, Gospels, Acts, Epistles and
Revelation, has its special introduction. Some forty pages of notes
are arranged at the end and there is an index “designed to give
assistance in the more systematic reading of the New Testament.” There
is also a frontispiece map.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 16:355 Jl ’20
“On the whole the book seems admirably adapted to the purpose
intended—to provide a text of the New Testament with explanations
adequate and truthful yet thoroughly adapted virginibus puerisque.”
+ =Nation= 111:305 S 11 ’20 200w
“Professor Moulton’s ‘Reader’s Bible,’ good as it is, does not please
everyone because he varies the order of the canon, and because he
adopts the revised version. However, we are glad to see his simplified
edition of the New Testament. It is far easier to read than any
ordinary Testament.”
+ =Spec= 125:540 O 23 ’20 170w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p637 S 30 ’20 120w
=MOWAT, ROBERT BALMAIN.= Henry V. il *$3.50 Houghton 942.04
“Henry V in his day was held to be the pattern of a chivalrous knight:
round his name has centred the romance of medieval England; in his
person Shakespeare found already expressed the glory of the
Elizabethan age, the symbol of our national aspirations. The character
of Henry V has many of the faults but all the virtues of his time; ...
his kindness and good fellowship; his bravery and sense of justice;
his unremitting industry; his piety.” (Chapter I) Among the contents
are: The legendary and the real Henry; The French war; The conquest of
Normandy; The treaty of Troyes; The work and character of Henry V. The
book is illustrated and has an appendix, a bibliography and an index.
An earlier edition of this work appeared in 1915.
* * * * *
=Ath= p668 My 21 ’20 1250w
“It is natural in such a biography rather to emphasize the heroic, and
within the limits of his space Mr Mowat has given us a very readable
and on the whole accurate history. But space would not permit the
writer to add much that is new.” C. L. Kingsford
+ − =Eng Hist R= 35:453 Jl ’20 1100w
Reviewed by E. L. Pearson
+ =Review= 3:419 N 3 ’20 500w
“Mr Mowat has written a good book, which should be widely read. He has
very rightly relied in the main upon the chief French and English
chronicles and biographies, and has avoided the tendency, rather too
common just now, to pick out erudite and often irrelevant detail from
half-read sources.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p182 Mr 15 ’20 1100w
=MUIR, EDWIN.= We moderns; enigmas and guesses. *$1.75 Knopf 192
20–26566
The volume is the fourth in the series of Free lance books, edited
with introductions by H. L. Mencken. It is a book of aphorisms after
the manner of Nietzsche and inspired by the philosophy of Nietzsche.
They are animadversions on life and all the modern aspects of life as
revealed in our art, literature, science, and religion; and are
grouped under the headings: The old age; Original sin; What is modern?
Art and literature; Creative love; The tragic view.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:7 O ’20
“There are lapses, superficialities, but on the whole this is
criticism, of life and of literature, which must effect a change in
one’s habits of thought.”
+ − =Dial= 69:102 Jl ’20 90w
“These aphorisms are utterly without the meretricious glitter of the
common epigram; they are luminous with the sober light of truth. Like
Pascal’s ‘Pensees’ the logic that underlies the book is, in its
smaller scale, an unconstructed cathedral of thought: it demands a
certain architectural intuition of the reader. One thing is certain:
no utterances more tonic, more bracing have rent the sultry firmament
of contemporary literature.”
+ =Freeman= 1:213 My 12 ’20 2150w
“He is, on the evidence of this little volume, a thinker not lightly
to be passed by.”
+ =N Y Times= p8 O 31 ’20 850w
=MUMFORD, ALFRED ALEXANDER.= Manchester grammar school, 1515–1915; a
regional study of the advancement of learning in Manchester since the
reformation. il *$8.50 (*21s) Longmans 373
20–8869
“This volume has seventeen chapters with twenty-one appendixes of
documents, tracing the history of the Manchester school for three
hundred years. The author is more interested in the personal history
of its benefactors, directors, masters, and graduates, than he is in
detailed information regarding the school’s management, support,
system of education, etc., at various periods. This is somewhat
disappointing to the American student. On the other hand the volume is
much more than a history of one school or even of the educational
forces and agencies in Manchester. There is much of value on the
educational and intellectual development of England in general, and
comment on the larger factors of an economic, social, and religious
character, which influenced the course of this development. The main
thread of the story has to do with the struggle to democratize the
school and to supplant the old classical curriculum with one which
would more directly meet the new economic and social conditions
ushered in by the industrial revolution. There are numerous
illustrations of Manchester, the school and notables connected with
it, and a good index.”—Am Hist R
* * * * *
“The book is a creditable piece of work, even if it does not measure
up to the high standard of scholarship which other writers have set in
their histories of similar schools.” M. W. Jernegan
+ − =Am Hist R= 26:127 O ’20 460w
“The last chapter of Dr Mumford’s book contains much valuable
material. As he was for a long time medical examiner at the school,
his testimony against military training in secondary schools is
important. Other valuable expert testimony is that given in regard to
the irregular development of the adolescent.” W. S. Hinchman
+ =Review= 2:523 My 15 ’20 1200w
=MUNDY, TALBOT.= Eye of Zeitoon. il *$2 Bobbs
20–4959
“Those who followed the fortunes of the four friends who traveled ‘The
ivory trail’ will rejoice at the opportunity here afforded of meeting
them once again and sharing the thrilling adventures which befell them
because of ‘The eye of Zeitoon.’ This same ‘Eye of Zeitoon’ was not a
precious stone of any kind, but a man named Kagig, an Armenian and a
patriot, doing his best to save his countrymen from the Turks. Two
women play important parts in the story—Gloria Vanderman, an American
girl, resolute, strong-willed and fearless, able to handle a pistol or
even a rifle in a moment of danger, and that effectively, and the
mysterious Maga Jhaere, the wild, pagan, primitive half-gypsy, a
veritable fiend at times, yet almost a child in her naïveté. She is
interesting, but not so interesting as Kagig himself.”—N Y Times
* * * * *
“‘The eye of Zeitoon’ shows a great advance on ‘The ivory trail,’
which we reviewed not long ago. It has more coherence, fewer horrors,
and a descriptive quality which at times touches the point of
brilliance.”
+ =Ath= p838 D 17 ’20 100w
=Booklist= 16:282 My ’20
“‘The eye of Zeitoon’ has most of the Kipling tricks and some of the
Kipling virtues. As a yarn, it drags at times, its briskness of style
being in odd contrast with the sluggish action.” H. W. Boynton
+ − =Bookm= 51:582 Jl ’20 210w
+ =Cleveland= p72 Ag ’20 50w
“Talbot Mundy would like to be a second Rudyard Kipling and he never
will, but if you don’t insist on making invidious comparisons and if
you like hot fighting you can find a lot of interest and excitement in
this tale.”
+ − =Ind= 104:382 D 11 ’20 80w
“A dramatic, well-written and absorbing romance of high adventure.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:205 Ap 25 ’20 700w
Reviewed by Katharine Oliver
+ =Pub W= 97:993 Mr 20 ’20 320w
“A highly interesting element is the author’s portraiture of eastern
characters.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Je 13 ’20 150w
“Mr Mundy strives valiantly after thrills and excitements, but
scarcely succeeds in rising above the level of musical comedy.”
− + =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p721 N 4 ’20 50w
=MUNDY, TALBOT.=[2] Told in the East. *$2 Bobbs
20–21184
“Two of the three stories in Talbot Mundy’s ‘Told in the East’ are of
the proportions of novelets. They are based on dramatic incidents in
the Indian mutiny. The third has a humorous trend but is withal a
typical Mundy tale. The first of the trio, ‘Hookum, Hai’ has for its
central figure Bill Brown, a stoical British sergeant, who, while
assigned to an isolated outpost in command of a dozen men, is caught
in the maelstrom of the initial uprising. A typical Mundy character—a
loyal, aristocratic Rajput officer—is the hero of ‘For the salt he had
eaten,’ the second story. ‘Machassan Ah,’ the final tale, relates the
humorous experiences of two British bluejackets who go ashore at an
Arabian port in pursuit of a native who proclaims himself an
Englishman.”—Springf’d Republican
* * * * *
“None of the three tales published in the present volume is lacking in
excitement; in fact, there is a little too much of it.”
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p10 D 31 ’20 100w
“Through the magic of these printed pages, we are transported to the
India of the last century.”
+ =N Y Times= p24 D 26 ’20 670w
“The three stories will afford pleasure and entertainment.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p7a D 12 ’20 230w
=MUNK, JOSEPH AMASA.=[2] Southwest sketches. il *$3.50 Putnam 917.8
The book describes the mesa and desert country and the coast line of
the Southwest geographically, geologically, climatologically and
ethnographically. The healthfulness, beauty and rare fascination of
the country are dwelt upon and the 133 illustrations give some idea of
the scenery and the remains of pioneer and aboriginal life. The
contents are: The mesa country; Land of the cliff dwellers; In
Hopiland; The Flagstaff region; The petrified forests of Arizona; El
Rito de los Frijoles; On the Arizona frontier; Passing of the Apache;
Ranch reminiscences; Big irrigation projects; Southwest climate;
Southern California.
* * * * *
+ =N Y Times= p14 Ja 2 ’21 910w
+ =R of Rs= 53:223 F ’21 70w
“A pleasantly informal travel book. Mr Munk evidently writes with
thorough knowledge and shows an appreciative eye for the beauties and
oddities of that country and its native people. Particularly
fascinating is the description of the petrified forests of Arizona.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 Ja 18 ’21 420w
=MUNROE, JAMES PHINNEY.= Human factor in education. *$1.60 Macmillan
370.1
20–2741
“A volume defending vocational education and written by a
vice-chairman of the Federal board for vocational education. The
author tries to show that the old regime of twenty years and more ago
was a flat failure in the scheme of education in the United States.
There is strong intimation that much of the old system is still in
force. He shows how the great world war has helped bring us to our
senses in the matter of educating boys and girls in a many-sided way
rather than in a narrow way as previously. (School R) “The book does
not advocate, however, the separation of vocational from academic
schools.” (Booklist)
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 16:331 Jl ’20
“The plea for reorganization of elementary and secondary education
could hardly be put more forcibly than is here given. To the casual
reader, however, there seems to be some overemphasis in places; but
this only makes one think more carefully.”
+ − =School R= 28:390 My ’20 600w
=MURCHISON, CLAUDIUS TEMPLE.= Resale price maintenance. pa *$1.50
Longmans 338.5
19–17749
“Dr Murchison lays the foundation for discussion of price maintenance
in the two chapters upon marketing: The organization of the market,
and Irregularities of the present retailing system. The discussion of
price maintenance is given in chapters five to eight.” (Am Econ R)
“[Other subjects discussed are] the function of the retailer, and
attempts to prevent price-cutting. Issued as Columbia university
studies in history, economics, and public law.” (Brooklyn)
* * * * *
“A serious study such as this is to be commended even though it does
not say the last word upon price maintenance.” H. R. Tosdal
+ − =Am Econ R= 10:120 Mr ’20 850w
=Brooklyn= 12:62 Ja ’20 30w
“The various forms of price maintenance and of price cutting are
described in detail, and the arguments for and against both, as well
as for the author’s own compromise position, are stated with lucidity.
If the reader remains unconvinced, the reason lies in the fact that in
actual life the problem of price determination is bound up with a
variety of other problems of equal importance to the consumer.” B. L.
+ − =Survey= 43:202 N 29 ’19 320w
=MURDOCK, VICTOR.= China, the mysterious and marvellous. il *$2.50
Revell 915.1
20–20219
“Mr Murdock’s book is simply a narrative of a trip into China that
took him rather far into the interior and away from the usual route of
the tourist.” (Freeman) “He says, ‘Here is the history of the present
volume. My brother in Wichita took the letters I had written and as
they had been published in our paper, the Eagle, put them in the form
they bear. Our idea was to let me give copies of it to particular
friends.” (N Y Times)
* * * * *
“It is unfortunate, we think that Mr Murdock elected to write this
story of his travels, not in English, but in journalese. Some three
hundred pages of etymological ‘jazz’ places an undue strain on the
reader’s literary nerves. And this is more the pity because the author
can command good, plain English when he wants to.” Harold Kellock
+ − =Freeman= 2:188 N 3 ’20 620w
“The text is so frisky, the words so plain and slangy, comparisons so
lacking, and the subject dealt with so personally, that I wondered at
a publisher printing such a book with paper and labor so dear.” F:
O’Brien
− =N Y Times= p7 S 5 ’20 3650w
+ =Outlook= 126:768 D 29 ’20 50w
=MURRAY, ELSIE RIAEH, and SMITH, HENRIETTA BROWN.= Child under eight.
(Modern educator’s lib.) *$1.90 (*6s) Longmans 372.2
(Eng ed E20–581)
“The book which comes from England with this title, ‘The child under
eight,’ is a discussion of the kindergarten after the fashion that
might have been found in an American book fifteen or twenty years ago.
The titles of the various chapters indicate the temper of the writers.
There are chapters entitled The world’s mine oyster, All the world’s a
stage, Joy in making, In grassy places, etc. The book is not without
some practical suggestions for work in the kindergarten, but in the
main it is a defense of the kindergarten with some reference to modern
movements in the treatment of little children.”—El School J
* * * * *
=El School J= 20:716 My ’20 170w
+ =Spec= 124:553 Ap 24 ’20 900w
=MURRAY, GILBERT.= Our great war and the great war of the ancient
Greeks. (Creighton lecture, 1918) *$1.25 (13c) Seltzer 938
20–13139
A comparison between the Peloponnesian war and the great war in
Europe. The war between Sparta and Athens was the greatest war the
world had ever known. “Arising suddenly among civilized nations,
accustomed to comparatively decent and halfhearted wars, it startled
the world by its uncompromising ferocity.” And it ended in a peace
that was no peace and was followed by other wars, the outcome of which
was death to both combatants. Drawing on the historians and dramatists
of the time the author sets forth a picture that shows many striking
similarities to our modern experience. In conclusion he expresses a
hope that in spite of the terrible evils growing out of the recent
war, we may make use of the opportunity to build a better
international life out of the ruin. The work is dated November 7,
1918.
* * * * *
=Nation= 111:252 Ag 28 ’20 350w
“Gilbert Murray’s translations are, as always, enjoyable, even though
such words as ‘Niagara’ in the mouth of the Athenians make us a bit
suspicious that other lively expressions also may be more Murray than
Aristophanes.” J. W. Hughan
+ =Socialist R= 9:208 N ’20 220w
=MURRAY, JOHN.=[2] John Murray III, 1808–1892. il *$1.50 Knopf
(Eng ed 20–8871)
“John Murray III was the grandson of the John Murray (1745–93,
originally MacMurray!) who founded the famous publishing house in
November, 1768, and the son of John Murray, jr. (1778–1843), who is
perhaps best remembered now as friend and publisher of Byron and as
publisher of the Quarterly Review. Of John Murray III (1808–92) there
was no account adequate at all, except mere facts in the Dictionary of
national biography, until his son’s interesting article appeared in
the Quarterly Review for January, 1919. The present little book
consists of that article, revised and enlarged, followed by the
father’s paper on the ‘Origin and history of Murray’s handbooks for
travellers,’ and by some new letters to his family (1830–91), mainly
describing vividly various travels abroad and at home.”—N Y Evening
Post
* * * * *
“The letters are excellent reading, and we venture to ask for more, if
more are to be had.”
+ =Ath= p76 Ja 16 ’20 300w
“Interesting because of his participation in literary events of real
significance, such as Scott’s announcement of his authorship of
‘Waverly’ and the publication of the ‘Origin of species.’”
+ =Booklist= 17:153 Ja ’21
“One misses such anecdotes and illustrations of literary life as might
have been expected from a publisher in close contact with great
writers.”
+ − =Nation= 112:90 Ja 19 ’21 180w
“This is a very interesting and welcome little book.” L. L. MacKall
+ =N Y Evening Post= p14 D 4 ’20 1250w
“The memoir has the unusual fault of being too brief, but it does
justice to its subject and adds a new and interesting chapter to the
history of English publishing.”
+ =Spec= 122:81 Ja 17 ’20 1650w
=MUSCIO, BERNARD.= Lectures on industrial psychology. 2d ed, rev il *$3
Dutton 658.7
20–13083
“A book principally composed of a series of lectures given to general
audiences at Sydney university.” (Survey) “These lectures discuss such
topics as fatigue, muscle coördination, individual differences,
scientific management, motion study, and other applications of
psychology to the life of workers.” (R of Rs)
* * * * *
=Ath= p180 F 6 ’20 1250w
“Taken as a whole, Mr Muscio’s volume may be recommended particularly
on account of its lucidity and common sense as providing what is
probably the best short account yet published in this field. In
certain places, however, these lectures are distinctly weak. The
author sometimes betrays only a distant acquaintance with the
statistical material of his subject. Another weakness of these
lectures is their too great reliance on the anecdotal method.” P. S.
Florence
+ − =Freeman= 2:117 O 13 ’20 600w
=R of Rs= 62:447 O ’20 30w
“There is no other book for the general reader that states the case
for a scientific handling of the human factor in industry more clearly
or more convincingly.” B. L.
+ =Survey= 44:638 Ag 16 ’20 280w
=MUZZEY, DAVID SAVILLE.= American history. il *$1.92 Ginn 973
20–10077
A prefatory note to this revised edition says, “Besides bringing the
narrative down to the spring months of the year 1920, the author has
entirely recast that part of the book following the Spanish war, and
has made considerable changes in the preceding chapters. The changes
are chiefly in the direction of added emphasis on social and economic
factors in our history. New illustrative material has been added, the
maps have been improved, and the bibliographical references brought
down to date.” The work was first published in 1911.
* * * * *
+ =School R= 28:548 S ’20 340w
=MYERS, ANNA BALMER.= Patchwork; a story of the “plain people.” il
*$1.75 (2c) Jacobs
20–5190
The “plain people” is what the religious sects, Mennonites, Amish,
etc., in the Pennsylvania Dutch country are called. Phœbe Metz was a
child of the “plain people” and this is her story from the time she
was a quaint, unusually interesting and original little “Dutchie” of
ten until she told David Eby that she would be his wife. She was fond
of the world and its vanity, her golden curls and pretty clothes. She
was frank about it; she could not be anything else but honest. And she
had the courage, likewise, to go her own way, sorely as she grieved
and shocked Aunt Maria. She went to Philadelphia to study music;
tasted and loved the world’s glitter; saw some of its wickedness too;
but when it came nigh to brushing the bloom off her youth, she escaped
unscathed to her beloved country. There among the people and things
that were a part of her very life she found herself, and when David
returned from the war with but one leg, they both knew how much they
had cared since they were children. There is much charm in the book’s
local coloring.
* * * * *
“Entertaining but with less convincing dialect and background than Mrs
Martin’s ‘Tillie.’”
+ − =Booklist= 16:349 Jl ’20
“There is a good deal of information about the ‘plain sects,’ their
ways and speech and ideas, in this perfectly innocuous little story.”
+ − =N Y Times= 25:321 Je 20 ’20 320w
=MYERS, FREDERIC WILLIAM HENRY.= Human personality and its survival of
bodily death. *$4 Longmans 133.9
“This well-known work first appeared about sixteen years ago in two
volumes, each of about seven hundred pages in length. The text is here
materially condensed, and most of the appendices, which occupied about
half each volume and contained examples of phenomena analysed in the
text, are omitted. A short biographical sketch of Myers is
included.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
“As Myers’ theory develops to include more and more unusual phenomena
it preserves its persuasiveness and elasticity: Myers’ patient skill
is indeed the most attractive feature of the book.” J. W. N. S.
+ =Ath= p78 Ja 16 ’20 1300w
Reviewed by Joseph Jastrow
=Dial= 69:201 Ag ’20 1150w
+ =Outlook= 125:281 Je 9 ’20 140w
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Je 20 ’20 650w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p719 D 4 ’19 60w
=MYERSON, ABRAHAM.=[2] Nervous housewife. *$2.25 (4½c) Little 616.8
20–21011
“Every practicing physician, every hospital clinic, finds her a
problem, evoking pity, concern, exasperation, and despair.” (Introd.
note) By examining the various causes and forms of nervousness in
housewives, from merely deënergizing neurasthenia to highly
pathological cases, from all points of view, the book seeks to
stimulate the trend toward greater individualization in women, and to
promote a more constructive and intelligent rebellion against
old-established conditions and discontents. The book is indexed and
the chapter headings are: The nature of “nervousness”; Types of
housewife predisposed to nervousness; The housework and the home as
factors in the neurosis; Reaction to the disagreeable; Poverty and its
psychical results; The housewife and her husband; The housewife and
her household conflicts; The symptoms as weapons against the husband;
Histories of some severe cases; Other typical cases; Treatment of the
individual cases; The future of woman, the home, and marriage.
* * * * *
“Written sympathetically and sensibly for the housewife herself to
read.”
+ =Booklist= 17:144 Ja ’21
=Boston Transcript= p6 D 4 ’20 360w
“There is a note of pessimism about the book, despite its
wholesomeness, that strikes a discordant chord here and there. But on
the whole the book is sane, frank without being indelicate, wise, and
fairly well-written.”
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p12 D 31 ’20 270w
N
=NALKOWSKA, SOFJA RYGIER.= Kobiety (women). il *$2 (3c) Putnam
21–492
This novel of Polish life has been translated from the Polish by
Michael Henry Dziewicki. It takes the form of self-revelations of a
beautiful, intellectual and self-centered girl—the transitional woman.
Nothing matters to her but her own sensations, her own experiences.
From the height of a coldly reasoning, logical intellect she surveys
passion, coquettes with it, longs for it and, when it comes rejects
it—from an inherited instinct of chastity. In the words of a rejected
lover, she was: “A bundle of theories, of sentimental scepticism, of
self-assurance.... A poor frightened bird always popping its head
under its wing!” But then this particular lover was only a splendid
specimen of physical perfection. At the end, discouraged and
bewildered, Janka returns to her old professor, who had been sorely
grieved when she had disappointed his hopes for her and had turned her
back upon science. The confessions are in three parts: Ice-plains;
“The garden of red flowers”; A canticle of love.
* * * * *
“Specifically a story of Polish life, this very unusual book reveals
the secret springs of all human life. To read it after a long course
of the mediocre, superficial writing through which a reviewer, in the
course of his duty, must wade is like emerging from the subway and
drawing pure air into the lungs. The translator has done excellent
work and the Benda drawing is distinctive.”
+ =N Y Times= p25 O 24 ’20 380w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
=Review= 3:451 N 10 ’20 720w
“Considered in detail, it is a curious, sometimes brilliant, and often
ludicrous work. We do not know whether the writer, for all her
subtlety and power of detachment, is the least aware of what an absurd
figure she has produced in Janka, this portentous type of modern
youth. The book is indeed surprisingly uneven, subtle and extravagant,
balanced and preposterous in turn.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p797 D 2 ’20 620w
=NAPIER, MARGARET.= Songs of the dead. *$1.50 Lane 821
20–17909
In his introduction to these poems Edward Garnett says of them that
they are unlike anything else; that they are not a “normal” product;
that they are a rough diamond from a matrix suggesting comparison with
the author of “The marriage of heaven and hell”; that in the
simplicity and intensity with which they banish from our sight
everything extraneous, alien to their passion, they are a lesson in
poetry; and that, with the conception that when we die we live on in
the grave, in our memories, in our anguish, in our desires, they are a
lesson in passionate feeling.
* * * * *
“They are poems of frustration, imperfect verbal equivalents of great
spiritual experiences, greater in intention and conception than in
realized execution. Miss Napier writes in free verse, in a curiously
tortured style full of inversions (one has the feeling that she is
trying to express, by the unnatural quality of the style, the more
than normal intensity of her emotion).”
+ − =Ath= p527 Ap 16 ’20 160w
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 N 3 ’20 480w
=N Y Evening Post= p29 O 23 ’20 80w
=NATHAN, GEORGE JEAN, and MENCKEN, HENRY LOUIS.= American credo. *$1.75
Knopf 814
20–3354
One hundred and three of the one hundred and ninety-one pages of this
“contribution toward the interpretation of the national mind”
(Sub-title) are preface, excused by the authors on the ground “having
read it, one need not read the book.” The authors’ contention is that
“deep down in every man there is a body of congenital attitudes, a
corpus of ineradicable doctrines and ways of thinking, that determines
his reactions to his ideational environment.” While the preface
consists of ratiocinations on these attitudes, doctrines and ways of
thinking the book itself is a collection of maxims and traditional
tenets that are supposed to make up the mental equipment of the
ordinary man. The first one reads: “That the philoprogenitive instinct
in rabbits is so intense that the alliance of two normally assiduous
rabbits is productive of 265 offspring in one year.” Other examples
are: “That Henry James never wrote a short sentence”; and “That German
peasants are possessed of a profound knowledge of music.”
* * * * *
=Ath= p429 Mr 26 ’20 140w
=Ath= p574 Ap 30 ’20 1200w
+ =Booklist= 16:338 Jl ’20
“None but a captious critic could find fault with the fact that the
authors’ preface occupies fully two-thirds of the book, for in that
space the truth about America and its inhabitants is told as it has
not been for some time.” G. M. H.
+ =Boston Transcript= p9 Mr 10 ’20 480w
+ =Cleveland= p76 Ag ’20 60w
=Dial= 68:666 My ’20 80w
+ =R of Rs= 62:447 O ’20 10w
=Springf’d Republican= p6 Je 17 ’20 260w
“The stringing together of widely held fallacies does not constitute
an ‘American credo’ any more than a collection of ‘want’ ads makes a
job. It does not describe, explain or interpret anything. The authors
themselves do not know American character, even in its major aspects,
but only its ludicrous or despicable blemishes.”
− =Survey= 44:385 Je 12 ’20 140w
“On the whole we do not gather from this repertory of popular
fallacies any very definite picture of American mentality. But one can
get from the latter half, at any rate, which does great credit to the
authors’ ingenuity, a good deal of entertainment.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p190 Mr 18 ’20 280w
=NATHAN, ROBERT.= Peter Kindred. *$2 (2c) Duffield
20–1889
The story of a boy’s school and college life, and his first contacts
with the outer world. Peter’s father sends him to Phillips Exeter with
the vague intention of giving him a gentleman’s education. The two
years in this school are followed by four at Harvard and the story
traces the quiet unsensational development of his mind and character.
He makes friends, is converted to Carverism—the economic creed of a
popular professor, and in his junior year meets Joan, a Radcliffe
student. Peter and Joan are married the year after his graduation.
They set up housekeeping in a New York tenement and work and play
together and test out their theories of life. The story ends with the
birth and death of their child.
* * * * *
“Unluckily there is not quite enough ‘to him’ to command and hold our
interest and concern at the exacted pitch.” H. W. Boynton
+ − =Bookm= 51:343 My ’20 120w
− =Dial= 68:537 Ap ’20 50w
“The reader possessed of sufficient pertinacity to work his way
through the first two hundred pages of ‘Peter Kindred’ will find in
the last part of the book a realistic sketch of youthful theories and
ideals at war with the economic facts of life.”
− + =N Y Times= 25:50 Ja 25 ’20 300w
“The story is well thought out and well written. Mr Nathan has put a
great deal into his work and has taken it seriously. That in itself is
more than can be said for many writers of current fiction.”
+ =Outlook= 124:479 Mr 17 ’20 240w
“The boy is a tolerably nice boy, and he does and thinks and says the
things a tolerably nice boy would. We do not deny that he is true to
fact. But what of it? Who cares? Since the author has failed to make
us care about him as a person?” H. W. Boynton
+ − =Review= 2:392 Ap 17 ’20 900w
=NEALE, REGINALD EDGAR.= Electricity. il $1 Pitman 621.3
20–16269
“In this book the author attempts no more than a review of the general
nature of electricity, the methods of producing it and the services to
which it is applied.” (Preface) The book is illustrated with
forty-five figures in the text. It is issued as one of Pitman’s common
commodities and industries series.
* * * * *
“It is remarkable how complete and accurate is the information given.
The reader is, however, hurried on unpleasantly fast, and is never
allowed to pause where his interest is aroused.”
+ − =Nature= 105:804 Ag 26 ’20 230w
=NEIHARDT, JOHN GNEISENAU.=[2] Splendid wayfaring. il *$2.25 Macmillan
978
20–27591
“As a poet, picturing the savage adventure of the early days of the
Yankee invasion of the plains and mountains, Mr Neihardt has already
won his reputation: his theme is huge and his powers are not unworthy
of it. In his new volume, a prose volume, he appears again in his
chosen domain, now as an historian. The period taken is 1822 to 1831,
the event is the career of Jedediah Smith, who in the eight years of
his adventurous maturity was the first American leader to discover the
central overland route to California—later the great immigrant and
trade route—and to measure the length of the Pacific coast from Los
Angeles to the Columbia.”—Bookm
* * * * *
“Mr Neihardt gives unity and verve to his volume by making Smith the
central spirit: but it is in a truly epic mode that the story is
conceived, and hence there could not be less than a picturesque
emphasis upon the companions of the hero, among them Ashley and Henry,
builders of the fur industry, and the trapper Hugh Glass who is the
subject of one of Mr Neihardt’s best-known poems.” Hartley Alexander
+ =Bookm= 52:360 Ja ’21 580w
“All this is fascinating reading, suggesting the lurid tales, much
sought and pored over, in boyhood, but while it is fascinating, it is
history, history of the growth of the United States; as important as
the occupation of the older states and the taking of the central
portion of the present union.” J. S. B.
+ =Boston Transcript= p2 N 24 ’20 570w
“This task has evidently been a labour of love, for Mr Neihardt has
not felt impelled to follow the pattern of angular, unimaginative
recital into which so many books of this kind fall.” L. B.
+ =Freeman= 2:478 Ja 26 ’21 180w
“A parallel work by, say McMaster, and called, say ‘Western
exploration from 1822–1831,’ would have been a valuable contribution
to the history of the West; but ‘The splendid wayfaring,’ as the title
plainly shows, is more than that; it is an American prose epic, an
absorbing tale of courage and endurance.” Walter Franzen
+ =N Y Evening Post= p14 D 4 ’20 520w
“Mr Neihardt has for the subject of this prose story one of the truly
dramatic themes of American history.”
+ =R of Rs= 63:223 F ’21 110w
“Mr Neihardt has allowed himself a rather lofty flight in his opening
paragraphs, where he links his tale up with that of the western
progress of the Aryan races. In a number of other places a tendency to
ornate language may be observed. But in other respects ‘The splendid
wayfaring’ has compelling force.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 D 17 ’20 300w
“Mr Neihardt has succeeded in giving some epical quality to his heroes
and painting, as he intended to do, the mood of their adventures.” M.
C. C.
+ − =Survey= 45:578 Ja 15 ’21 240w
=NEKLIUDOV, ANATOLII VASIL’EVICH.=[2] Diplomatic reminiscences before
and during the world war, 1911–1917; tr. from the French, by Alexandra
Paget. *$8 Dutton
(Eng ed 20–10794)
“A Russian diplomat’s frank statement of what he learned as Minister
to Bulgaria during the Balkan wars of 1912 and of 1913, supplemented
by his observations during the world war, when he was serving as
Minister to Sweden, and Ambassador to Spain. Writing in the firm
conviction that all who took part in the tremendous events of those
years now belong to ‘an irrevocable past,’ M. Nekliudov speaks as
freely concerning his contemporaries as if they were actually dead.”—R
of Rs
* * * * *
“M. Nekliudov, with his tears and his discontents, is not a very
interesting person. The best part of his long book is the record of
his ambassadorship in Sweden during the war, and in his comments on
certain Russian statesmen such as Stürmer and Protopopoff he has
something to say that is not without interest.”
− + =Ath= p205 Ag 13 ’20 270w
=R of Rs= 63:109 Ja ’21 90w
“The style is more than clear and studiously temperate: it is at times
eloquent and pathetic, and throughout tinged with the philosophy
natural to a cultured gentleman. The English of Alexandra Paget is so
good that it must, we think, be ranked as a first-rate translation.”
+ =Sat R= 130:94 Jl 31 ’20 1000w
+ =Spec= 124:87 Jl 17 ’20 210w
“Having lost his emperor, his country and his sons, this former
representative of a departed system sees no necessity to guard certain
of those secrets which go to make up the mystery of diplomacy. In
consequence of this break with the past which fate has forced upon him
M. Nekliudov is interesting and informative.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p343 Je 3 ’20 1300w
=NEW= Decameron; second day. *$1.90 McBride
20–8740
The first volume was published last year. Like it this second volume
is a collection of short stories by different authors, each story in
keeping with the character of its narrator. Contents: Jim of Moloch’s
bar, by Francis Carco: Bread upon the waters, by Michael Sadleir; The
history of Andrew Niggs, by Basil Blackwell; The tool, by W. F.
Harvey; The master-thief, by Dorothy L. Sayers; The affair of the
Mulhaven baby, by M. Nightingale; The vase, by Camilla Doyle; “Once
upon a time” by Bill Nobbs; A prayer perforce, by M. Storm Jameson;
Salvator Street, by Sherard Vines.
* * * * *
“In spite of serious inequalities in the work, the total result is
undoubtedly entertaining. In all the stories there is evidence of
careful workmanship, a preoccupation with literary means which is
highly satisfactory save when it aims at effect with too unchastened
self-consciousness.” F. W. S.
+ =Ath= p172 Ag 6 ’20 520w
“Some of them are excellent, some rather poor and a few unequivocally
dull. Heralded simply as ‘Salvator street’ comes the surprise of the
book. In it Sherard Vines has succeeded in creating a character
besides writing the best story of the volume.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p4 D 11 ’20 350w
“The idea of vocational guidance in the telling of tales is not
altogether conducive to the best flights of the imagination. The
obligation to relate the sort of story that a master-printer, a poet,
or a psychic researcher would be apt to relate seems to have put a
restraint upon most of the contributors.” L. B.
− =Freeman= 2:501 F 2 ’21 130w
“‘The new Decameron,’ to carry on its excellent plan, must be, like
the ‘Canterbury tales’ which its general method recalls, more
variously human in substance and in modulation. Their inventiveness in
plot and ingenuity in structure are remarkable. But these are not high
qualities in fiction. ‘The new Decameron’ needs not, indeed,
cheerfulness, but sunlight; less smell of the charnel house and more
of the earth.”
− + =Nation= 111:596 N 24 ’20 260w
“The structure of the book is cleverly contrived, and in reading it
the fact that this is the work of several hands does not obtrude
itself too violently. At its best the book is artistic, and it is
always elegant. The remoteness, the wickedness, and the nervous dread
of crudity dissociate the authors from the literary giants of past
times. All the contributors give an impression of literary taste, and
not one of them has generated a ‘human document.’”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p363 Je 10 ’20 550w
=NEWBOLT, SIR HENRY JOHN.=[2] Book of good hunting. il *$3.50 (*10s 6d)
Longmans 799
20–18594
“Sir Henry Newbolt has put together many interesting stories about
sport. Elephants, lions, and tigers come first: then there are
chapters on deer-hunting and fox-hunting, with many extracts from Mr
Masefield’s fine poem, ‘Reynard the fox,’ and a closing chapter on
fishing. In his introductory chapter, ‘On the nature of sport,’ he
states the arguments for and against sport, and insists very strongly
on the value of true sportsmanship to the national character.”—Spec
* * * * *
+ =Ath= p649 N 12 ’20 500w
“Sir Henry Newbolt writes so pleasantly that he will attract readers
of all ages.”
+ =Spec= 125:710 N 27 ’20 90w
“From a literary or sporting standpoint, the book is equally
attractive.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 Ja 18 ’21 320w
“The instances of hunting experiences chosen by Sir Henry are
admirably described, and compel the reader to share the excitement of
the hunter. He brings out all the concomitants which differentiate
sport from killing.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p825 D 9 ’20 950w
=NEWLAND, H. OSMAN.= Romance of modern commerce. il *$2 Lippincott 380
20–3902
“The book is, as described in its sub-title, a popular account of the
production of a number of common commodities. It collects a mass of
miscellaneous information about wheat and other cereals, tea, coffee
and cocoa, rubber, tobacco, cotton, silk, wool, timber, paper, fruit
and wine, cattle and leather, vegetable and mineral oils, furs and
feathers, precious stones and metals.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
“Informative and of varying interest. Could be used by upper grades
and high schools.”
+ =Booklist= 17:55 N ’20
=Brooklyn= 12:126 My ’20 20w
=R of Rs= 62:448 O ’20 30w
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p748 D 11 ’19 150w
=NEWMAN, ERNEST.= Musical motley. *$1.50 Lane 780.4
20–1630
A series of papers by an English musical critic. Among the titles are:
“L’enfant prodigue”; On instruments and their players; On musical
surgery; Criticism by code; Futurist music; The best hundred scores.
* * * * *
“Mr Newman is a musician of the nineteenth century. This must not be
taken to mean that he is an old-fashioned pedant who is out of touch
with new developments. On the contrary, he is intensely interested in
modern music and has no sentimental illusions about that of the past.
Music is for him always a thing of the living present.” E: J. Dent
+ =Ath= p1010 O 10 ’19 900w
+ =Booklist= 16:232 Ap ’20
“Mr Newman is never dull, even when he is grave.” H: T. Finck
+ =Bookm= 51:169 Ap ’20 440w
“The chief attraction of Mr Newman’s book, besides its dry humor, is
its lack of dogmatism and its corresponding illumination of
speculative points.” M. H.
+ =New Repub= 22:168 Mr 31 ’20 520w
+ =R of Rs= 61:224 F ’20 80w
“He differs from a good many fashionable critics in his familiarity
with the works of the ancients, and in testing the moderns by
standards which these critics are either ignorant of, or refuse to
accept. Perhaps the wisest and sanest passages in the book are those
in which he differentiates the originality that counts from that which
does not.”
+ =Spec= 123:542 O 25 ’19 1450w
“The book is always interesting, often gay, reading. The essays on the
classics are apt, but do not go far enough; that on the grotesque is
tentative, that on obituaries might have been omitted. We should have
liked some more like ‘Originality in music’ and ‘Quotation,’ and that
on Bishop Blougram in partibus, which are full of sound judgments
delivered with a light touch.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p545 O 9 ’19 1300w
=NEWSHOLME, SIR ARTHUR.= Public health and insurance: American
addresses. $2.50 Johns Hopkins 614
20–12817
“Sir Arthur Newsholme has for thirty-five years been an active figure
in the public health profession of Great Britain and for eleven of
those years has served as principal medical officer of the Local
government board. In the fall of 1919 he came to the School of hygiene
and public health of Johns Hopkins as lecturer on public health
administration. The book just published is made up of addresses
delivered to public audiences in the course of visits paid to various
university and medical centers in America.” (Survey) “It is largely
devoted to the present state of public health in England and to the
progress in public health policy that has been realized within the
last fifty years.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup)
* * * * *
“The sections which describe the wonderful progress made in dealing
with tuberculosis and child welfare in England during the past few
years will prove of absorbing interest to the specialist. There is
hardly a chapter in the book, however, which should not be read by
every social worker for its value as a contribution to the philosophy
of social reform.” C.-E. A. Winslow
+ =Survey= 45:259 N 13 ’20 460w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p621 S 23 ’20 170w
=NEWTON, ALMA (MRS ALMA NEWTON ANDERSON).= Jewel in the sand. *$1.35
(6c) Duffield
20–1890
A beautiful girl, Cynthia, tells her story in detached episodes: how
she left her barren, loveless New England home to come to New York and
study music; how after her first success love came to her. The perfect
soul union is marred by the man’s duality. She goes away, has more
half mystic experience, becomes more and more spiritualized as she
struggles with poverty and is at last rescued by the man who had
always loved her unselfishly, had renounced her and had waited. He
marries her and takes her home to the East.
* * * * *
“By dealing with life more realistically than she has yet done Alma
Newton has deepened the effect of those unique spiritual qualities
that have from the first distinguished her work.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:39 Ja 25 ’20 600w
=NEWTON, W. DOUGLAS.= Westward with the Prince of Wales. il *$2.50 (2½c)
Appleton 917.1
20–17402
The author, as special correspondent, accompanied the Prince of Wales
on his tour through Canada and the United States and gives his
impressions of the Prince, the cities and country through which they
passed, and the receptions they received, in an entertaining chatty
way.
* * * * *
+ =Ath= p528 Ap 16 ’20 60w
“He has a distinctive and pleasing style. His volume is as
good-humored an account of travels as has appeared for some time.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 S 1 ’20 280w
“He draws an intimate and charming portrait of the Prince, and
furnishes at the same time, an entertaining view of Canada and some
cities of the United States as they appear to an intelligent
Englishman.”
+ =N Y Times= p14 D 5 ’20 1100w
+ =Outlook= 126:378 O 27 ’20 40w
=Review= 3:194 S 1 ’20 200w
“Gaily, vividly, even wittily, Mr Newton sets forth what he saw;
unimportant and unpretentious as this record of a transcontinental
journey across Canada is, it will inspire readers to go and do
likewise. Mr Newton writes in a vein of amused appreciation.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Ag 22 ’20 1600w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p244 Ap 15 ’20 160w
=NEWTON THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTION.= Newton chapel. $1.50 (2c) Am. Bapt.
252
20–8357
A selection from the chapel talks delivered during the year 1918–19 by
members of the faculty of the Newton theological institution. The
first is on The meaning of the New year, by President George E. Horr.
Among those that follow are: How Jesus looked at men, by Winfred N.
Donovan; The compelling power of Jesus’ personality, by Henry K. Rowe;
Freedom and service, by James P. Berkeley; The inner life, by Samuel
S. Curry; The joy of forgiveness, by Frederick L. Anderson; The spirit
of expectation, by Richard M. Vaughan; James Russell Lowell and the
preacher, by Woodman Bradbury. The chapel talks are supplemented by
seven addresses at the conference of the Baptist leaders of New
England.
* * * * *
“On the whole the talks are unified, interesting, and excellent
examples of little sermons.”
+ =Bib World= 54:433 Jl ’20 200w
“The clergy expect the scientist, the historian, the statesman to
stick to known facts, and then wonder why the church does not succeed
better while the preacher is permitted to soar off into the realms of
the imagination and preach as sacred truth that which finds its origin
in theory and its expression in cant. Of course there are good things
in the book, much sound advice, many godly admonitions, but it is
proper to call attention to a dangerous method of preaching which
succeeds in little else than furnishing ground for scepticism.”
− + =Springf’d Republican= p8 Ag 6 ’20 300w
=NEXÖ, MARTIN ANDERSEN.= Ditte: girl alive! *$2 (2c) Holt
20–26759
This story, translated from the Danish, describes the life of poor
fisherfolk and of the poorest of small farmers. It is the story of a
little illegitimate girl left in the care of her grandparents, whose
one joy in life she becomes. When her mother, a cold, selfish, cruel
creature, now married to a rag-and-bone man and huckster, wants her as
nurse for her other children, she does not hesitate to take her away
from the blind, widowed grandmother. Ditte’s life is wretched, her
only true friend her step-father, the jovial rag-and-bone man. She
repays him by standing by him, through all his sorrows and
afflictions, with indomitable good nature and courage, until she is
forced to leave him to go into service.
* * * * *
“The loveliness in human nature and the evil also stand out in sharp
relief against the simple, often sordid background. Will interest
readers of ‘Pelle the conqueror.’”
+ =Booklist= 17:73 N ’20
“The Danish author has not been fortunate in the translation, however,
which is uneven and lacking in idiomatic grace.” E. P.
+ − =Dial= 70:106 Ja ’21 60w
“With all the straitened cruelty of its events the story has a quality
which is almost glamorous. The simple telling and lack of stress
somehow give it breadth; it is full of the effect of open spaces.
There are passages of great tenderness, and others of fresh gaiety and
resilience. Then, too a primary perception of human forces lifts the
story out of any narrow bondage.” C. M. Rourke
+ =Freeman= 2:213 N 10 ’20 420w
“The story scrupulously avoids an artificial symmetry of structure and
follows, so far as possible, the rhythm of life. The firmness and
simplicity of the style shine even through an inferior translation.”
+ =Nation= 111:303 S 11 ’20 600w
“The English version is a livid corpse, and the only function left for
a reviewer who knows the original is that of coroner. In common
honesty, Henry Holt & Co. should put on the title page of ‘Ditte: girl
alive,’ ‘Mutilated from the Danish,’ and omit the name of the innocent
author.” Signe Toksvig
− + =New Repub= 25:113 D 22 ’20 1300w
“The characters in the book are flesh-and-blood people and their drab,
dreary lives are made very real.”
+ =N Y Times= p24 S 5 ’20 620w
=Outlook= 126:238 O 6 ’20 50w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
+ =Review= 3:450 N 10 ’20 520w
=Spec= 125:744 D 4 ’20 30w
“The book deserves to be read. It is well-written, effective, and
above all, bears the earmarks of truth.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p9a N 14 ’20 370w
“It is to be supposed that, as with ‘Pelle,’ this volume is but one of
several dealing with the same characters, and that later Ditte will
develop into womanhood. If that be so, Mr Nexö has made an interesting
first movement, though it may be hoped that later ones may have the
contrast of greater lightness; if this be all, then it can only be
regarded as an unfinished fantasia.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p701 O 28 ’20 480w
=NICHOLS, ROBERT MALISE BOWYER.= Aurelia, and other poems. *$2 Dutton
821
20–15351
“The sequence of ‘Sonnets to Aurelia’ gives the story of a
disappointed lover with his mistress whose falseness, though ugly,
intensifies the helpless passion of the man. The form of the sonnet in
which the poet tells his story is Shakspearean.”—Boston Transcript
* * * * *
“Mr Nichols, like many of the minor Elizabethan lyrists, uses the
fourteen lines of the sonnet simply for the sake of their sound, their
rich baroque handsomeness of appearance. That is the principal and, to
our mind, damning defect of his sonnets. They have no substance. The
fountains are dry, the parched stone faces open their mouths to no
purpose; we are at a loss to see why the monument was built.”
− =Ath= p765 Je 11 ’20 1200w
“Among Mr Nichols’s most potent qualities the quality of vision is the
steadiest and strongest. Among the most recent English poets he is the
richest in this endowment.” W. S. B.
+ =Boston Transcript= p6 S 8 ’20 1200w
“The result is, to my taste, like a dish flavoured with nutmeg and
cinnamon to which has been added a dash of tabasco sauce.” J: G.
Fletcher
− =Freeman= 2:331 D 15 ’20 600w
“With some of the faults of youth, Mr Nichols has all of its virtues.
He is adaptable, he is resourceful, he is restlessly eager to try new
methods, to pour his soul into an unaccustomed vessel. He has force,
eloquence, fire, and passion.”
+ − =Spec= 124:22 Jl 3 ’20 850w
* * * * *
“The conspicuous fault of ‘Aurelia’ is the insecurity of its style. Here
is a series of quasi-Shakespearian sonnets, in which we have conceits
without gracefulness, artifices aimed at intensifying rather than at
easing the situations they describe—in brief a conscious author,
magnifying an experience the content of which was meagre at the best in
imitation of a spontaneous one the experience of which is too full to be
contained.”
− + =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p418 Jl 1 ’20 1000w
=NICHOLSON, MEREDITH.= Blacksheep! blacksheep! il *$1.75 Scribner
20–7287
“At a dinner in Washington the hero, one Archibald Bennett, whose
income encourages his neurasthenia, sits next to a girl who tells him
that no man whose life motto is ‘Safety first!’ is likely to have a
very good time or escape a bored anaemia. Several days later the same
Archie goes to Maine to look at a house for his sister, and the next
thing he knows he has shot a man and is a fugitive from justice in the
stolen car driven by the ‘governor’! After that you, together with the
police forces of most of the states in the Union, are completely in
the ‘governor’s’ power.”—N Y Times
* * * * *
=Booklist= 16:314 Je ’20
=Cleveland= p72 Ag ’20 60w
“It is as breathlessly contrived and as diverting to follow as a
crooked street in a mediaeval town, along which anything might
happen.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:220 My 2 ’20 550w
“The tale furnishes pleasant diversion.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Je 6 ’20 480w
=NICHOLSON, WATSON.= Anthony Aston, stroller and adventurer. *$1.25 The
author, South Haven, Mich.
20–19783
This brief monograph forms a footnote to stage history. Little has
been known of Tony Aston, the author says, “save that he was a
strolling player for many years, the author of an unsuccessful play
and the much more important Brief supplement to Colley Cibber’s
apology.” An autobiographical sketch which he happened upon in the
British museum in 1914 has been made the basis of Mr Nicholson’s
account. This sketch is appended, as is the “Brief supplement.”
* * * * *
“The reprint is welcome and every student interested in ancient
Bohemias will be delighted to hear Aston tell, with complete disregard
for syntax and in the authentic pot-house style of Ned Ward and the
other blackguard wits, of his amazingly varied career.”
+ =Nation= 112:sup246 F 9 ’21 450w
“The student of the stage and society will find his career interesting
for the light it throws upon the provincial and illegitimate stage of
the time, concerning which practically nothing is known.” J. W. Krutch
+ =N Y Evening Post= p8 N 27 ’20 380w
=NICHOLSON, WATSON.= Historical sources of DeFoe’s Journal of the plague
year. $2 Stratford co. 942.06
DeFoe’s “Journal of the plague year” which has hitherto been
classified as fiction and has been accounted as a “masterpiece of the
imagination” is here proven, by the aid of extracts from original
documents in the Burney collection and manuscript room of the British
museum, to be “a faithful record of historical facts, that it was so
intended by the author and is as nearly correct as it was humanly
possible to make it from the sources and time at his command.” The
contents are: Originals and parallels of the stories in DeFoe’s
Journal; The historical sources of the Journal; Errors in the Journal;
Summary. The appendices consist of excerpts from the original sources
of the Journal and from hitherto unpublished documents illustrative of
the plague. There is a bibliography.
* * * * *
=Outlook= 125:281 Je 9 ’20 90w
=Spec= 124:834 Je 19 ’20 400w
=Springf’d Republican= p8 Jl 23 ’20 240w
“Dr Watson Nicholson’s book suffers a little from the researcher’s
usual impatience with those who preceded him; a little more from his
sometimes odd and slack English; more still from careless
proof-reading. But those who are interested in DeFoe should read the
book, because the author does more than work his case out closely.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p418 Jl 1 ’20 800w
=NICOLAY, HELEN.= Boys’ life of Lafayette. il *$1.60 (2½c) Harper
20–16920
The author writes of Lafayette as “a very gallant, inspiring figure
uniting the old world with the new.” She tells her young readers in
the preface: “This is no work of fiction. It is sober history; yet if
the bare facts it tells were set forth without the connecting links,
its preface might be made to look like the plot of a dime novel.” The
book is illustrated and has an index.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:123 D ’20
“Even tho this is pure history, as the author declares, there is a
deal of romance in the life of Lafayette to fascinate the young
reader.”
+ =Lit D= p96 D 4 ’20 40w
=NIETZSCHE, FRIEDRICH WILHELM.= Antichrist. (Free lance books) *$1.75
(5c) Knopf 230
20–4092
Mr Mencken has made a new translation of “The antichrist,” Nietzsche’s
last work with the exception of his “Ecce homo.” The introduction
states: “The present translation of ‘The antichrist’ is published by
agreement with Dr Oscar Levy, editor of the English edition of
Nietzsche. There are two earlier translations, one by Thomas Common
and the other by Anthony M. Ludovici.... I began this new Englishing
of the book, not in any hope of supplanting them, and surely not with
any notion of meeting a great public need, but simply as a private
amusement in troubled days. But as I got on with it I began to see
ways of putting some flavour of Nietzsche’s peculiar style into the
English, and so amusement turned into a more or less serious labour.”
Mr Mencken’s introduction offers a critical interpretation of
Nietzsche.
* * * * *
“Mr Mencken’s translation of Nietzsche’s last considerable work is
lively and energetic, and his introduction is a happy example of his
critical writing.”
+ =Ath= p557 Ap 23 ’20 130w
=Booklist= 17:85 N ’20
Reviewed by Preserved Smith
=Nation= 110:sup483 Ap 10 ’20 250w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p243 Ap 15 ’20 60w
=NIVEN, FREDERICK JOHN.= Tale that is told. *$1.90 (1½c) Doran
20–17825
The simple uneventful chronicle of a Scotch clergyman’s family, told
in a leisurely manner. The father is a genial egotist who had preached
to Queen Victoria at Balmoral and who never lets this fact be lost
sight of. The story follows the course of the six children’s lives
after his death, telling of their worldly success, business affairs,
love affairs and marriages. For a time three of the brothers conduct a
book store and circulating library, of which an amusing account is
given.
* * * * *
+ − =Ath= p439 O 1 ’20 820w
“He takes such a ‘slice of life’ as might delight Mr Hugh Walpole, and
he treats it quite in the manner of Mr Walpole, only—and it is an
important difference—he lacks something of his vitality. The substance
is more level, a level quality not due to restraint but to quality of
vision.” D. L. M.
+ − =Boston Transcript= p4 O 20 ’20 700w
“The scenes in the library are especially good.”
+ =Cleveland= p105 D ’20 40w
“The novel as a whole reflects the commonplace lives of the vast
majority of us, ‘such poor little figures struggling along in the
jungle’ with considerable accuracy.”
+ =N Y Times= p18 N 14 ’20 850w
“I wish I could feel the glow that so many writing people seem to be
feeling about Frederick Niven’s ‘A tale that is told.’ It is pleasant
enough, human enough in its somewhat lacklustre fashion; but in the
end not much more than ‘a long preparation for something that never
happens.’”
+ − =Review= 4:57 Ja 19 ’21 640w
“The characters are unusually alive; it is a pity that they all lack
charm. The book is well constructed; the author has distinct ability.”
+ − =Spec= 126:56 Ja 8 ’21 40w
“It is refreshing to come upon a man who can write both lightly and
profoundly and who can mingle tenderness and humor without losing the
force of either.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p9a N 14 ’20 380w
“It is not a story with a pattern, but there is a frame to it that
gives it bounds and a focus that gives it coherence; there is sunlight
in it—the pale northern sunlight of Scotland. The characterization is
clear and the more pungent for its tolerance.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p633 S 30 ’20 470w
=NOGUCHI, YONÉ (MISS MORNING GLORY, pseud.).= Japanese hokkus. *$2 Four
seas co. 895
20–20445
The hokku is the seventeen syllable poem of Japan which the author
describes at some length in the preface. This preface is in itself a
prose poem in its quaint English and with the vista it opens into the
Japanese mind. The real value of the hokku, we are told, is not in
what it expresses but how it expresses itself spiritually: not in its
physical directness but in its psychological indirectness. It is “like
a spider-thread laden with the white summer dews, swaying among the
branches of a tree; ... that sway indeed, not the thread itself, is
the beauty of our seventeen syllable poem.” Of the translating of the
hokku the author says, it is like the attempt to bring down the
spider-net and hang it up in another place. The epilogue is a
reflection on the introduction of western civilization into Japan.
* * * * *
“‘Japanese hokkus’ is remarkable for at least two reasons; one,
because its poems are of that sensitive and illusive loveliness that
is rare in the realism of contemporary publications, and another
because the book links the literature of the Orient and the Occident
rather more than any other poet whom we recall.” K. B.
+ =Boston Transcript= p7 O 2 ’20 1100w
“Whether it is because he is writing in a foreign language, or because
English cannot have packed into it the associations of thousands of
years and the treasure of half-forgotten philosophies, the Japanese
poet fails to produce the effect achieved by Waley in his
translations.” Babette Deutsch
+ − =Dial= 70:206 F ’21 230w
“To enjoy this present volume and to be deaf to Mr Walter de la
Mare—or to Shakespeare’s songs, for that matter—is to enjoy the art
page of the newspaper more than a visit to the originals in the art
gallery.” Llewellyn Jones
− + =Freeman= 2:260 N 24 ’20 600w
+ =N Y Evening Post= p18 O 23 ’20 110w
=NOLEN, JOHN.= New ideals in the planning of cities, towns and villages.
il $1 (3c) Am. city bureau, Tribune bldg., N.Y. 710
20–211
“The cities of the United States have not yet made many of those
public improvements that are so essential to modern life, especially
for the new era.... They have not yet applied in a businesslike and
economical manner the methods characteristic of the modern city
planning movement. Therefore the American city still suffers in many
ways from haphazard, piecemeal and shortsighted procedure.” (Part 1)
To show how these shortcomings are to be remedied, how the new civic
spirit is growing, what has already been done and what is the promise
of the future is the object of the book. Among the topics discussed in
the first part are: Two main divisions of city planning; Specific
needs of the smaller city; How to replan a city; How to get a city
plan into action. Part 2 contains in part: The city planning movement;
Local data as basis of city plan; Types of city plans; Elements of
city plans; Professional training and experience; New towns and new
standards; Public opinion and city planning progress.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:20 O ’20
+ =Springf’d Republican= p11a Jl 11 ’20 220w
“We have never seen within such small compass a clearer description of
the processes of town planning or of the principles that underlie good
planning. A special merit of the book is that it reckons with the
limitations and difficulties of the small town where at the present
time such leadership as this is most needed and where examples taken
from the costly improvement schemes of large cities are not helpful.”
B. L.
+ =Survey= 43:592 F 14 ’20 320w
=NORRIS, KATHLEEN (THOMPSON) (MRS CHARLES GILMAN NORRIS).= Harriet and
the piper. il *$1.90 (2c) Doubleday
20–13977
Harriet Fields had an emotional adventure when she was seventeen, and
her romantic fancy was captured by Royal Blondin’s talk on Yogi
philosophy, oriental religion and poetry. She even went through a
bogus marriage ceremony with him when her youthful timorousness saved
her from further disaster. Ten years later, when she is filling a
position of trust, as companion to the wife of the rich Richard Carter
and governess to his daughter Nina, Blondin crosses her path again
holding their former relationship over her as a sword, to enlist her
aid in the furtherance of his new schemes, i. e., marrying young Nina
Carter and possessing himself of her fortune. It involves Harriet in
many temptations. Twixt the overcoming of and yielding to them her
character is clarified. After Mrs Carter’s elopement and sudden death,
Harriet enters a marriage of convenience with Richard Carter, whom she
secretly loves and admires and the wooing by the husband of his new
wife forms part of the interest of the book.
* * * * *
“A lively and interesting story.”
+ − =Ath= p813 D 10 ’20 60w
=Booklist= 17:35 O ’20
“Well worn, even threadbare as her material is, Kathleen Norris has
contrived to concoct from it a very pleasant little story, and one
which holds the reader’s attention until the last half dozen chapters,
when it begins to drag badly. It is smoothly written, and agreeable to
read.”
+ − =N Y Times= p24 Ag 1 ’20 950w
“Readers who can put aside the insubstantial theme and the artificial
dilemmas attributed to the principals, will find some entertainment in
the flow of life and color through their vaguely troubled days.”
− + =Springf’d Republican= p11a S 12 ’20 200w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p801 D 2 ’20 100w
=NORWOOD, GILBERT.=[2] Greek tragedy. $5 Luce, J: W. 882
(Eng ed 20–16119)
“The summaries and criticisms of the extant plays constitute the main
body of the book, forty-eight pages being given to Æschylus,
fifty-four to Sophocles, a hundred and forty-one to Euripides. The
book, as the author says, ‘aims to cover the whole field of the Greek
drama, both for the student and the general reader.’”—N Y Evening Post
* * * * *
“We think that, for Euripides, his present work is sound as well as
interesting. When we turn to his treatment of Æschylus and Sophocles,
we feel that in attempting to cover the whole ground, Mr Norwood has
undertaken more than he is at present ready to perform.” J. T.
Sheppard
+ − =Ath= p10 Jl 2 ’20 1250w
“It is certainly a convenience to have in one volume the literary
criticism of the extant plays and the general history of Greek tragedy
and the antiquities of the theatre, instead of looking for them in the
two volumes of Haigh. In these subsidiary matters Professor Norwood’s
scholarship though not independent is sufficient for his purpose. He
still retains the British awe of any and all German scholarship and
the British habit of ignoring American work.” Paul Shorly
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p6 D 31 ’20 1800w
“He writes throughout as an enthusiast, and illustrates his points by
modern parallels which are always ingenious, and often happy.
Reference might have been made to the modern performances of various
plays, for the best way to understand any drama is to see it acted.
The chapter on ‘Metre and rhythm’ at the end is an excellent idea well
carried out.”
+ − =Sat R= 130:39 Jl 10 ’20 200w
=NOYES, ALFRED.= Beyond the desert; a tale of Death valley. *$1 (7½c)
Stokes
20–18658
The story is symbolic of a soul losing itself in a desert of ideas
before it emerges into the light of clear understanding. James Baxter,
an I.W.W., is a prisoner in transport and escapes from a stalled train
into Death valley in the Arizona desert. His hardships bring on
delirium and in a trance he finds himself among a halted pioneer party
of 1849. In exchanging notes on their respective civilizations with
them he comes to see the error of his ways and when he is finally
rescued he goes among his I.W.W. comrades to convince them also. He is
successful with the crowd but the infuriated leaders kill him.
* * * * *
“Though Mr Noyes’s work is earnest and readable, we wish that so
experienced a hand had not permitted polemics, poetics, and melodrama
to crowd the same pages.”
+ − =N Y Evening= Post p10 O 30 ’20 230w
“The very qualities that one admires in such a poem as ‘The
highwayman,’ depreciate when used in the prose form. It is possible
that in verse the story would not seem so lacking in vitality. The
descriptions of the desert are good; the style is fairly clear; and
yet there is a quality of unreality, of dreaminess, of
sentimentality.”
− + =Springf’d Republican= p5a Ja 2 ’21 260w
=NOYES, ALFRED.= Collected poems. v 3 *$2.50 Stokes 821
A volume containing all of Mr Noyes’ poems written between October,
1913, and the present. With the two volumes published in 1913 it forms
a complete edition of the poet’s verse to date. It comprises The Lord
of Misrule and other poems; The wine-press; A Belgian Christmas eve;
The new morning; The elfin artist and other poems.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:146 Ja ’21
“Mr Noyes possesses a delightful singing gift in his carefree
moments—and can bore us almost to tears when the sense of his
‘message’ to the world descends upon him. When he turns to glamourous
romantic ballads and to brief, sincere, intensely spiritual lyrics,
such as ‘Paraclete,’ he is at his best.”
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p22 D 4 ’20 170w
“Whenever he writes sermons and dissertations and criticisms in verse
he fails. Whenever he writes ballads he succeeds. However, there are a
few other poems in this volume for which we should thank Mr Noyes,
notably ‘Old gray squirrel,’ the pathetic ‘Court martial’ and ‘A
victory dance.’”
+ − =N Y Times= p25 Ja 30 ’21 620w
=NOYES, ALFRED.= Elfin artist, and other poems. *$1.50 Stokes 821
20–17329
The elfin artist is the initial poem of this collection of verse
written by the author since the spring of 1919. Some of the other
poems are: Earth and her birds; Sea-distances; The inn of Apollo; The
Sussex sailor; In southern California; The riddles of Merlin; The isle
of memories; A ballad of the easier way; A Devonshire Christmas;
Beautiful on the bough; The bride-ale; A sky song; A return from the
air; A victory dance; The garden of peace; Four songs, after Verlaine.
* * * * *
“No Elizabethan could conceivably have written one of his poems. The
conscious romanticism, the sentimentality, the imperialism expressed
with a catch in the voice, the blurred, soft, unprecise language, the
barrel-organ tunefulness—all these things, so characteristic of Mr
Noyes, would have been impossible to an Elizabethan.”
− =Ath= p142 Jl 30 ’19 420w
+ =Booklist= 17:106 D ’20
“So sharply do these poems recall the poet of ‘The barrel-organ’ that
we wonder whether the recent neglect of Noyes was reasonable; surely,
with such books as these, he will yet sing his way back into the
hearts of English readers.” S: Roth
+ =Bookm= 52:361 D ’20 110w
“Not in any of what may be termed the petulant and irritable, spirited
poems of this collection, striking as some may be for their frank and
vehement qualities, is Mr Noyes’s reputation either sustained or
enhanced. One may truly say that the poems that spring out of the
Sussex scene, with their half-bucolic and traditional mood, alone
retain the admiration of Mr Noyes’s readers.” W. S. B.
+ − =Boston Transcript= p9 S 18 ’20 1300w
“Their redeeming features are Mr Noyes’ ability to handle metre and
the very evident pleasure he takes in writing. That pleasure is a
quality quite lacking in many modern poets who write far better than
Mr Noyes.”
+ − =Ind= 104:246 N 13 ’20 180w
“Mr Noyes continues to write his pleasant anachronisms and it must be
admitted that he does them with the usual dexterity and
mellifluousness that is so much a part of his charm. He does possess
charm and no one will actually die of ennui while reading his lines.
But readers could far better occupy themselves with other poets, for
Mr Noyes brings nothing new to his readers, not even his thought.” H.
S. Gorman
+ − =N Y Times= p22 D 26 ’20 680w
“‘The elfin artist’ is the product of the author’s mature lyric gift,
rich in variety or form and theme, and offering an equal appeal to the
emotions and to the mind.” Philip Tillinghast
+ =Pub W= 98:664 S 18 ’20 500w
“Mr Noyes continues to annoy the devotees of all the varieties of free
verse by his ability to use rhyme, and to observe the rules of
prosody.” E. L. Pearson
+ =Review= 3:249 S 22 ’20 140w
“His gift to literature is twofold. He can write well himself and he
can prevent others from writing badly.”
+ − =Spec= 124:729 My 29 ’20 700w
“With one or two exceptions, each of Mr Noyes’s poems is no better and
no worse than any of the others. To study the volume is to get the
impression of sameness, of easy fluidity, of lack both of thought and
of labour. His simplicity is not the simplicity of compression and
refinement. His responsiveness sweeps away his thought.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p381 Je 17 ’20 600w
+ =Wis Lib Bul= 16:235 D ’20 50w
=NOYES, FRANCES NEWBOLD.= My A. E. F.; a hail and farewell. *$1 (12c)
Stokes 940.373
20–11506
A book in the form of a familiar talk to A. E. F. boys by a girl who
was a Y. M. C. A. worker in France. It is an appeal to them to
remember the ideals they fought for, and to apply them in the new war
“against selfishness and materialism and intolerance and hatred.” It
is reprinted from McClure’s Magazine.
* * * * *
“A very fine and moving bit of writing is Miss Noyes’s little book,
simple, comradely, full of memories, and wise with the wisdom of Eve.
The book ought to be read by every man who served on the other side
and also by every person at home who has ever said a slighting word
about any of the phases of the welfare work for the army.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:11 Jl 11 ’20 1100w
=NUTT, HUBERT WILBUR.= Supervision of instruction. (Riverside textbooks
in education) *$1.80 Houghton 371
20–10064
“The shifting, unprofessional character of the teaching body makes the
provision for competent supervision of instruction not only desirable,
but necessary.... The undertaking of training supervisors involves the
setting-forth of the job or activities of supervision, and the
organizing of the means by which supervisors can best be trained to
perform their duties.” (Introd.) The book is, accordingly, an
analytical discussion of the principles underlying class-room
supervision, and the devices and technique which should and which
should not be employed. It falls into two parts. Part 1, The job of
supervision, is a general survey of supervising activities. Part II[or
2?—see above], Principles underlying the supervision of instruction,
is divided into the following sections: Supervisory method; Devices of
supervision; Technique of supervision. There is an index.
* * * * *
“The book is to be welcomed as one of the first serious and successful
attempts to create a specific literature for supervisors.”
+ =El School J= 21:69 S ’20 450w
+ =School R= 28:551 S ’20 180w
=NYBURG, SIDNEY LAUER.= Gate of ivory. *$2.25 (1½c) Knopf
20–19577
This is the story of Allan Conway who loved a beautiful siren of a
woman and loved her so well that he allowed himself to be saddled with
her and her husband’s crime, in order to shield her and to become an
outcast for her sake. The remarkable part of the story is that, as an
outcast, he loved her still, that he did not become a cynic—although
he did take to drink periodically—and that he was even happy in the
dream life that he now lived with his Eleanor. This life he elaborated
in every detail from the house he built for and the conversations he
had with her even to their dream child. A Peter Ibbetson with a
difference is this Allan Conway.
O
=O. HENRY MEMORIAL AWARD.= Prize stories, 1919. *$1.90 (1½c) Doubleday
20–8630
A volume published as a memorial to O. Henry and composed of the
fifteen short stories which a committee of the Society of arts and
sciences of New York city have decided on as the best short stories of
1919. Blanche Colton Williams writes the introduction. Contents:
England to America, by Margaret Prescott Montague; “For they know not
what they do,” by Wilbur Daniel Steele; They grind exceeding small, by
Ben Ames Williams; On strike, by Albert Payson Terhune; The elephant
remembers, by Edison Marshall; Turkey red, by Frances Gilchrist Wood;
Five thousand dollars reward, by Melville Davisson Post; The blood of
the dragon, by Thomas Grant Springer; “Humoresque,” by Fannie Hurst;
The lubbeny kiss, by Louise Rice; The trial in Tom Belcher’s store, by
Samuel A. Derieux; Porcelain cups, by James Branch Cabell; The high
cost of conscience, by Beatrice Ravenel; The kitchen gods, by G. F.
Alsop; April 25th, as usual, by Edna Ferber.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:119 D ’20
“One can only wish that more of such volumes might be issued, for many
of our American writers are at their best in the short story. The ‘O.
Henry memorial award’ volume of 1919 is a book well worth reading.”
+ =N Y Times= 25:319 Je 20 ’20 850w
+ − =Review= 3:132 Ag 11 ’20 140w
=OAKESMITH, JOHN.= Race and nationality; an inquiry into the origin and
growth of patriotism. *$4 Stokes 320.1
19–16466
“As the result of an attempt to arrive at a lucid conception and
precise definition of ‘a nationality,’ the author thinks that he has
discovered the explanation of nationality ‘in what may be formally
called the principle of “organic continuity of common interest”‘; and
the constructive part of the book is devoted to the elucidation of
this principle. The author considers that universal and lasting peace
will be secured, not by ‘the sudden imposition of hastily manufactured
machinery,’ but by the gradual extension of the above principle from
national to international life.”—Ath
* * * * *
=Ath= p961 S 26 ’19 120w
Reviewed by F. J. Whiting
=Review= 1:705 D 27 ’19 1200w
=R of Rs= 61:336 Mr ’20 40w
Reviewed by I. C. Hannah
+ − =Survey= 43:504 Ja 31 ’20 360w
“This is a treatise of ability, displaying considerable knowledge of
the literature of the subject.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p486 S 11 ’19 120w
“It would not be difficult to show that there are inconsistencies in
the discussion and conclusions arrived at by Mr Oakesmith;
inconsistencies traceable largely to his desire to do justice to the
representatives of all shades of opinion. It may be more profitable
than dwelling on such points to note one or two omissions from the
volume, in particular the demands of what may be called
pseudo-nationality; that form of it which is not the slow result of
continuously operating influences, but is artificially created.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p600 O 30 ’19 1200w
=O’BRIEN, EDWARD JOSEPH HARRINGTON (ARTHUR MIDDLETON, pseud.).= Best
short stories of 1919. *$2 (1½c) Small
The authors represented in this year’s volume are: G. F. Alsop;
Sherwood Anderson; Edwina Stanton Babcock; Djuna Barnes; Frederick
Orin Bartlett; Agnes Mary Brownell; Maxwell Struthers Burt; James
Branch Cabell; Horace Fish; Susan Glaspell; Henry Goodman; Richard
Matthew Hallet; Joseph Hergesheimer; Will E. Ingersoll; Calvin
Johnston; Howard Mumford Jones; Ellen N. La Motte; Elias Lieberman;
Mary Heaton Vorse, and Anzia Yezierski. The book contains also an
introduction by Mr O’Brien, discussing points raised by Waldo Frank’s
“Our America,” and the usual features of the Year book of the short
story.
* * * * *
=Booklist= 16:314 Je ’20
“Of the twenty stories an indifferent half-dozen barely pass the
average.... Sherwood Anderson’s ‘An awakening,’ and Joseph
Hergesheimer’s ‘The Meeker ritual,’ have the distinction of subtlety
and style, irrespective of theme. You feel about the other authors
that each might with a little effort have written the other’s story,
but these two of Anderson’s and Hergesheimer’s could only have been
written by themselves.” W. S. B.
+ − =Boston Transcript= p10 Mr 27 ’20 650w
Reviewed by Doris Webb
=Pub W= 97:603 F 21 ’20 380w
“Mr O’Brien’s standards define themselves with precision, and a
summary of his tests will serve as test for Mr O’Brien. He has no eye
for style. The second point in literature to which Mr O’Brien is
insensitive is tone. The third and final want is the sense of
workmanship. Mr O’Brien, however, has qualities which are as
incontestable as his limitations. He has a keen, if not infallible,
sense, of the powerful in motive, the original and trenchant in
conception. Mr O’Brien’s collection will be of service to those
readers who are wise enough to grasp its limitations.”
+ − =Review= 2:463 My 1 ’20 520w
=O’BRIEN, GEORGE A. T.= Essay on mediaeval economic teaching. *$4.75
(*12s 6d) Longmans 330.9
20–20196
“Mr O’Brien passes in review the principal economic theories of the
medieval schoolmen, not continuing the study farther than the
beginning of the sixteenth century. In a concluding chapter he gives
reasons for a favourable estimate of the medieval economic doctrine
from the points of view of production, consumption and
distribution.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
* * * * *
“It is a truism (which unfortunately is rarely true) to say of a new
book that it supplies a long felt want: but in the case of Dr
O’Brien’s essay to say so would be strictly true. Mediæval economic
theory has never before been discussed with the fullness it merited.”
+ =Cath World= 112:109 O ’20 480w
Reviewed by C: A. Beard
=Nation= 111:480 O 27 ’20 800w
“It is a work of learning and ability, concerned rather with the clear
and concise presentation of doctrine than with the criticism of it.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p369 Je 10 ’20 110w
“The historian who peruses this book will put it down with mixed
feelings of amusement over the wordy contest and of despair at the
unfamiliarity the combatants display with the alphabet of historical
science.”
− =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p466 Jl 22 ’20 1000W
=ODELL, GEORGE CLINTON DENSMORE.= Shakespeare from Betterton to Irving.
2v il *$12 Scribner 822.3
20–19676
“Professor Odell has undertaken to do for all Shakespeare’s plays,
tragedies and comedies, histories and dramatic romances, what has
hitherto been attempted for two of the tragedies only, in Miss Wood’s
‘Stage history of Richard III,’ and in Brereton’s rather sketchy
account of the various performances of ‘Hamlet.’ He has organized his
two volumes in eight chronological divisions: the age of Betterton
(1660–1710); the age of Cibber (1710–1742); the age of Garrick
(1742–1776); the age of Kemble (1776–1817); the leaderless age
(1817–1837); The age of Macready (1837–1843); the age of Phelps and
Charles Kean (1843–1879), and the age of Irving (1879–1902). Not only
does he give us what is to a certain extent a history of the theatres
of London, he also supplies us with what is almost (if not quite) a
history of the superb evolution of the art of scene painting.”—N Y
Times
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:106 D ’20
“Students should be grateful to Professor Odell for the painstaking
manner in which he has traced the fate of Shakespeare on the English
stage. Mr Odell has attacked the subject with freshness and zest. His
enthusiasm never seems to flag.... Admire his work as I do, I am
convinced that had Mr Odell been more thoroughly in sympathy with the
new ‘unrest’ in the theater, he would have seen more clearly certain
points relating the past with the present.” M. J. Moses
+ =Nation= 111:sup660 D 8 ’20 1400w
“No better medium than the work of Professor George C. D. Odell has
thus far been provided to apprehend the gradual evolution of stage
decoration, costume, and attention to historic accuracy.” H. H.
Furness, jr
+ =N Y Evening Post= p6 D 4 ’20 1650w
“It is no dry-as-dust chronicle that he has here given us. It is a
readable book that he proffers, a book abounding in apt anecdote, in
illuminating quotation and in genial comment. Although the author has
had to correct many blunders and many misstatements of many
predecessors, he spares us the acrimony of controversy.” Brander
Matthews
+ =N Y Times= p2 O 24 ’20 300w
=O’DONNELL, ELLIOT.= Menace of spiritualism. *$1.50 (3½c) Stokes 134
20–6366
The author of the book, himself an investigator in the field of
psychic research and a believer in spontaneous manifestations of the
spirits of the dead, condemns the practice of spiritualism, with its
mediumistic invocations of spirits as a vice. Its dangers are many.
From the point of view of orthodox Christianity it menaces faith and
morality alike; from that of the medical profession it is injurious to
health; from that of the greater number of most eminent scientists it
is a sham; and from the point of view of common sense it is a
hotch-potch of imbecility, gullibility, and roguery. Contents:
Foreword by Father Bernard Vaughan; “Spiritualism”—what is it? How
spiritualism tries to distort the Old Testament; Spiritualism and the
New Testament; Spiritualism and the churches; The phenomenal side of
spiritualism and its effect on the health; The danger of fraud of all
kinds at séances.
* * * * *
“He delivers some shrewd blows, and in a popular manner sets forth a
strong case against spiritualists and their operations.”
+ =Ath= p352 Mr 12 ’20 80w
+ =Cath World= 112:252 N ’20 40w
=N Y Times= 25:19 Jl 4 ’20 160w
“Such protests are welcome, however much they fall short of the
sanction of a high consistency; it is hardly to be expected that a
critic of Mr O’Donnell’s electric temper will find favor with those
who see in psychical research a far wider menace and a subtler attack
upon the fundamentals of sound thinking. Yet to part of the composite
clientèle from which latter-day recruits for the occult are gathered,
this earnest word of warning may prove helpful.” Joseph Jastrow
+ − =Review= 3:41 Jl 14 ’20 250w
=Springf’d Republican= p6 Je 1 ’20 400w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p143 F 26 ’20 80w
=O’DUFFY, EIMAR.= Wasted island. *$2 (1c) Dodd
20–16927
A story of Ireland and the Irish movement culminating in the Easter
rebellion. Bernard Lascelles, son of a successful Dublin doctor, is
brought up in ignorance of his country’s history. In fact it is part
of his father’s purpose to keep him in ignorance, fearing that the boy
may take after his uncle Christopher Reilly, who died fighting England
on the side of the Boers. Bernard is sent to an English school, but in
spite of his father’s efforts is drawn into the Nationalist and later
into the Sinn Fein movements, a letter left by his uncle Christopher
to be read on his twenty-first birthday proving the turning point in
his life. A very different bringing up is that of Stephen Ward, whose
father, a discouraged Fenian, hopes that his son may never wreck his
life in the hopeless cause but does not deny him knowledge. Both young
men oppose the Easter uprising but both are involved in it. Bernard is
wrecked by it but Stephen escapes. “‘And now,’ said Michael Ward to
his son, ‘now that everything has turned out as I told you it would,
what do you mean to do?’ ‘I suppose,’ replied Stephen, ‘we must begin
all over again.’”
* * * * *
=Booklist= 17:159 Ja ’21
“The story is long and the plot complicated but it is well told and
the interest is sustained to the close.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p8 D 11 ’20 350w
“Although, as an artistic piece of work, the book leaves much to be
desired, its vigour and sincerity save it from the category of the
mediocre.” L. M. R.
+ − =Freeman= 2:406 Ja 5 ’21 160w
“It is one-sided and its heroes are not very attractive characters,
but it is interesting and informing.”
+ − =Ind= 104:244 N 13 ’20 90w
“Mr O’Duffy is refreshingly free from didacticism. He allows the facts
to explain for themselves, and does not make any indictment in the
bitter, devastating manner of Brinsley McNamara’s ‘The clanking of
chains.’ Regarded as a human document this book should be of great
interest and assistance to readers in America who want to understand
the Ireland which confronts them in alarming headlines.” E. A. Boyd
+ =N Y Evening Post= p3 O 30 ’20 1300w
“The animus of the book as a whole is unmistakable. Hate for England
rather than love for Ireland is the mainspring of this active
‘patriotism.’” H. W. Boynton
+ − =Review= 3:422 N 3 ’20 380w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p104 F 12 ’20 540w
=OEMLER, MRS MARIE (CONWAY).= Purple heights. *$2 (2c) Century
20–17411
The hero is Peter Devereaux Champneys, a boy of eleven when the story
opens. The scene is South Carolina where Peter lives in a four-roomed
cabin with his mother, who runs a sewing machine to keep herself and
Peter alive. Peter, who is considered a dunce in school, spends all
his odd moments making pictures. One day he sketches the Red
admiral—the beautiful butterfly that alighted on the milkweed pod by
the side of the road—and the Red admiral proves to be his good fairy.
His mother dies and Peter brings himself up, with the aid of Emma
Campbell, a faithful negress. An unknown uncle appears out of the West
and offers to send Peter to Paris, and so anxious is Peter to get to
Paris that he accepts the uncle’s strange terms, marriage with an
unknown Nancy Simms. His first sight of Nancy Simms is disconcerting,
for she is a red-haired virago, but he runs away to Paris immediately
after the ceremony and forgets her. In Paris he becomes famous and in
the meantime Nancy grows up to be a beautiful woman and all ends well.
* * * * *
+ =Booklist= 17:73 N ’20
“Excellent, forceful writing appears on the earlier pages. Soon the
benevolent persons enter, one after another, and they reflect urban
life. The naturalness and sincerity of the story lessen.” R. D. W.
+ − =Boston Transcript= p4 O 27 ’20 500w
“A new author, writing real literature, is Mrs Oemler.” Lilian Bell
+ =N Y Evening Post= p8 N 27 ’20 950w
“The author knows the South, and her understanding of the black man’s
mind is demonstrated on nearly every page. ‘The purple heights’ is a
worthy successor to Mrs Oemler’s first success, ‘Slippy McGee.’”
+ − =N Y Times= p23 O 24 ’20 600w
“When Peter grows up and goes to Paris and becomes famous the charm
vanishes and interest lags. It is in her beginnings that the author is
most successful.”
+ − =Pub W= 98:1192 O 16 ’20 200w
“Decidedly inferior to ‘Slippy McGee,’ but nevertheless an
entertaining story, with some delightful passages describing the
hero’s youth.”
+ − =Wis Lib Bul= 16:238 D ’20 30w
=OGILVIE, PAUL MORGAN.= International waterways. *$3 Macmillan 387
20–2670
“‘International waterways’ is a history of the development of maritime
enterprise. It sets forth the efforts of certain nations to secure the
exclusive enjoyment of the seas. The first part of Mr Ogilvie’s book
concludes with a critical discussion of the question of the freedom of
commercial navigation. Part II is composed of a reference manual,
where is to be found a list of all the international inland waterways
of the world, together with the treaties and laws governing the
same.”—Springf’d Republican
* * * * *
Reviewed by A. F. Hershey
+ − =Am Pol Sci R= 14:519 Ag ’20 700w
=Booklist= 16:300 Je ’20
“A valuable reference work. If there is any fault to be found with Mr
Ogilvie’s work it is a fault perhaps inseparable from the breadth of
the task and the limited size of the volume. The author has neither
the time nor the space to pause for that wealth of illustration which
the reader would like to demand. But he constantly cites his sources
and the reader who is interested in more detailed study may turn to
them.” G. H. C.
+ − =Boston Transcript= p9 My 29 ’20 850w
“The international lawyer, the historian, and the general student of
modern problems will each be grateful to Mr Ogilvie for his helpful
work.” M. W. Tyler
+ =Mississippi Valley Hist R= 7:161 S ’20 460w
“Mr Ogilvie’s thoughtful treatise is very timely.” L. J. B.
+ =Review= 2:603 Je 5 ’20 1350w
=R of Rs= 62:224 Ag ’20 60w
“A scholarly, well-written history.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p10 Ap 30 ’20 280w
+ =Survey= 44:352 Je 5 ’20 100w
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p215 Ap 1 ’20 120w
“The bibliography of treaties is likely to be of much practical use in
coming years and represents a great deal of most fruitful labour. The
bibliography of works dealing with the subject, though not exhaustive,
will be helpful. An excellent index concludes a very thorough piece of
work.”
+ =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p265 Ap 29 ’20 1600w
=O’HIGGINS, HARVEY JERROLD.= Secret springs. *$2 (3c) Harper 130
20–19287
The author outlines the system of a Dr X who has “largely uncovered
the mechanism by which the mind affects health” and who has evolved
this system of mental hygiene according to which he treats his
patients and directs them to safeguard themselves. It is based on the
Freudian theory of psychoanalysis from which Dr X deviates and upon
which he enlarges to some extent by not emphasising the sex element
with the same insistence. The contents consider suppressions: In love
and marriage; In health; In childhood; In happiness and success; In
Theodore Roosevelt; In character and conduct; In dreams; In religion.
* * * * *
“Mr O’Higgins is agreeably free of Freudian and sexual obsessions.”
+ =Nation= 111:694 D 15 ’20 50w
“It is a very cheerful book, not only because it escapes what the
writer calls the ‘unspeakable’ abstruseness and laboratory
gruesomeness of the expositions of Freud and his followers, but also
because everybody gets cured.” Renee Darmstadter
+ − =N Y Evening Post= p8 D 31 ’20 400w
=O’KELLY, SEUMAS.= Golden barque; and The weaver’s grave. *$1.75 (4c)
Putnam
The longest tale in this collection, “The weaver’s grave,” describes
an ancient graveyard “Cloon na Morav,” the meadow of the dead. So
ancient is it that to have a right of burial there amounts to a
pedigree. It is only the weaver, newly dead, and one survivor, Malachi
Roohan, the cooper, who still have that right. On two other ancient
inhabitants of the town devolves the task of finding the weaver’s
grave. It is a well-nigh hopeless quest, related with insight and
weird humor. The rest of the book, under the heading “The golden
barque” consists of: Michael and Mary; Hike and Calcutta; The haven;
Billy the clown; The derelict; The man with the gift.
* * * * *
+ =Ath= p31 Ja 2 ’20 130w
“Slight plots, delightful people and the characteristic Celtic humor.”
+ =Booklist= 17:159 Ja ’21
“‘The golden barque’ is so finely and purely Irish that it is doubtful
whether a child could make the most of it. But these are tales with so
much literary and poetic quality that it would be unfortunate not at
least to give the child a chance.”
+ =Ind= 104:380 D 11 ’20 40w
“There is an indescribable charm in these two Irish stories, which is
attributable to the manner in which they are told, rather than to any
extraordinary merit in plot and action.”
+ =N Y Times= p19 N 7 ’20 460w
“I shall recall the book for the long sketch with which it begins, but
which for obvious reasons is not the title-story: ‘The weaver’s
grave,’ a comedy most limited in scene and accessory, but rich in
content and perfect in form.” H. W. Boynton
+ =Review= 3:422 N 3 ’20 190w
“His characters are new, not picked from the crowd but found here and
there in Ireland with individuality stamped all over them. They are
not very important characters, but such as they are they challenge
attention.”
+ =Springf’d Republican= p8 D 28 ’20 180w
“If all these little stories were as beautifully told as the first,
the set would be a rare delight. They vary in merit, and usually fall
when Mr O’Kelly relies on detail, to rise again when he opens his
inner vision.”
+ − =The Times [London] Lit Sup= p677 N 20 ’19 230w
=OLCOTT, FRANCES JENKINS.= Story-telling ballads. il *$3 Houghton 821.08
20–21433
The anthology contains seventy-seven of the ancient ballads and
narrative poems such as were sung by minstrels and recited by gaffers
and gammers in days of old. They are intended for boys and girls from
twelve to fifteen years of age, and contain “romances, hero-tales,
faërie legends and adventures of knights and lovely damsels. They sing
of proud and wicked folk, of gentle and loyal ones, of laidley worms,
witches, mermaids with golden combs, sad maidens, glad ones and
fearless lovers, mosstroopers, border-rievers, and kings in disguise.”
(Foreword) There are four color-prints, and the appendix contains
suggestions for teachers, a glossary and indexes of subjects, authors,
titles and first lines. The contents are grouped under the headings:
The salt blue seas; A-harrowing o’ the border; Brave hearts and proud;
Lays o’ faërie; Lays o’ wonder; Merry gestes; Sad gestes; Pretty mays
and knights so bold; For Halloween and midsummer eve; All under the
greenwood tree; O’ pilgrimage and souls so strong.
* * * * *
“Miss Olcott has selected her ballads with good taste, and the indexes
and glossary are excellent.”
+ =N Y Evening Post= p20 D 4 ’20 100w
=OLCOTT, HARRIET MEAD.= Whirling king, and other French fairy tales. il
*$1.50 Holt
20–16112
Ten fairy stories adapted from the French and illustrated in
silhouette. The titles are: Prince Rainbow; Bleuette’s butterfly; The
frozen heart; The elf-dog; The whirling king; The magic mirror; The
queen’s treasure; The stupid princess; The flying wizard; The forest
fairy.
=OLDMEADOW, ERNEST JAMES.= Coggin *$1.75 (1½c) Century
20–818
The meeting of two human spirits for mutual uplift, development and
regeneration is the theme of the story. The Reverend Oswald Redding,
rector of a fashionable Episcopal church in Bulford-on-Deme, discovers
in little Harry Coggin, son of a rags-and-bone man, a prodigy in
intellect and spirit. In awarding him a scholarship at the grammar
school, he has thrown a bombshell into the society of notables and
inflamed the class hatred of the lowly. The story records Harry’s
brief and distressing career at the school and shows how his rare
gifts and spirit pierce the crust of the rector’s conventional
Christianity, turning him from the well-worn ruts of his career to
find God along new paths. Harry in turn receives the courage, the
incentive, the divine impulse for his genius, from the rector’s
enveloping love.
* * * * *
“The clever, respectful little boy, in this bit of his life, is
perhaps a less interesting study than the more substantial figure of
the rector. The case of the misuse of endowments and charities is
intelligently argued; but we cannot believe in the ‘conversion’ of the
socialist house-painter, and the definition of agnosticism would not
satisfy an intelligent schoolboy.”
+ − =Ath= p1274 N 28 ’19 100w
“This strange, extraordinarily attractive little personality is Mr
Oldmeadow’s discovery, and from the moment we meet him talking to
George Placker we are prepared to follow him anywhere he may like to
take us. The novel as a whole lacks proportion. The closing scenes,
with the rector for principal figure, are far too drawn out.” K. M.
+ − =Ath= p143 Ja 30 ’20 700w
“A quiet picture, very life-like, appealing to readers who do not
demand much plot.”
+ =Booklist= 16:282 My ’20
“The story is the result of a literary craftsmanship worthy of
notice.”
+ =Boston Transcript= p5 N 20 ’20 150w
“No doubt the book is to be classed as propaganda; but propaganda is
seldom so engagingly presented. The book has faults, the more
irritating because they could have been easily avoided had the author
exerted himself a little more. Nevertheless, its vitality is
deep-rooted and its appeal is wide.”
+ − =Cath World= 111:698 Ag ’20 510w
“The first of a trilogy evidently ambitious of being the English ‘Jean
Christophe.’ Though of fine craftsmanship and possessing a certain
unique charm, not on the same artistic plane.”
+ − =Cleveland= p42 Ap ’20 100w
“The story has charm and a warm subdued color and a savor of the earth
and of old houses in forgotten sunshine.”
+ =Nation= 110:373 Mr 20 ’20 260w
“Coggin is, to tell the truth, a fearful prig, and the reader must
have a patient way with priggish and humorless virtue to bear with him
till the end of the present narrative. The story is told with a
certain skill and polish; but it is not very clearly worth telling,
for all that.”
− + =Review= 2:310 Mr 27 ’20 220w
=The Times [London] Lit Sup= p698 N 27 ’19 60w
=OLGIN, MOISSAYE JOSEPH.= Guide to Russian literature (1820–1917). $3
(3½c) Harcourt 891.7
20–7675
Because Russian literature reproduces the spiritual struggles of men
and goes down to the very bottom of everyday existence to scrutinize
the economic, the social and the political life of the country, its
study becomes valuable not only as an art but as the surest road to
the understanding of the Russian people and conditions. The author
therefore has selected from the literary productions of the nineteenth
and twentieth century only those which have value for the present
either on account of their artistic qualities, or as representing some
aspect of Russian life. The contents are in three chronological
groups, each preceded by a general survey of the era. Part I—The
growth of a national literature; Part II—The “modernists”; Part
III—The recent tide. The book also contains a list of pronunciations
of authors’ names, an appendix on juvenile literature in Russia, and
an index.
* * * * *
“This might well be called an inspired booklist. It answers the
question ‘What shall I read to understand Russian character and
Russian life?’”
+ =Booklist= 16:306 Je ’20
“The grouping of the material in this rather ‘sketchy’ volume is
somewhat inadequate. Authors whose influence was very small are at
times given more attention and space than is seemly in comparison to
those who are very characteristic and important both from the
historical and psychological point of view.”
− + =Dial= 69:322 S ’20 120w
“It is fresh in its treatment, original in its scheme and far more
intelligently comprehensive than any other available handbook.”
+ =Freeman= 1:262 My 26 ’20 700w
“Mr Olgin combines an initiate’s grasp of the political and social
background of his country with an intense and catholic appreciation of
its literature and his command of incisive and pictorial English might
be envied by writers to whom the tongue is native.” Jacob Zeitlin
+ − =Nation= 111:327 S 18 ’20 240w
“The book is expressly not devised as a ‘history,’ yet the American
reader or student of Russian literature will find it of much greater
value as a history than any so-called history he can lay his hands on
in English.” Clarendon Ross
+ =New Repub= 24:334 N 24 ’20 490w
“In view of the number of authors dealt with, it is only natural the
individual sections should prove more or less uneven. Some are
splendid; others are far from satisfactory. The work as a whole is an
excellent production.”
+ − =N Y Times= p16 O 10 ’20 780w
“That quality of compactness which one demands in a handbook is not
invariably adhered to.”